


Insomnia

by clumsykitty



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Avengers Disassembled, Captain America/Iron Man Big Bang 2019, F/M, Horror, House of M - Freeform, Hurt, Just a little surprise inside, Lovecraftian Monster(s), M/M, Monsters, Stony - Freeform, Violence, sleep problems, some smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 12:40:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 32,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21494446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clumsykitty/pseuds/clumsykitty
Summary: For Tony, everything started when the Avengers disassembled and Wanda was missing. He felt lost and without Steve at his side, nightmares came to him. But just now, those nightmares seem to proceed from somewhere else with the premonition of a dark future and his death. He needs to tell Steve what he feels before falling asleep again or that dream will be the last one he has.
Relationships: Hank Pym/Janet Van Dyne, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Janet Van Dyne
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20
Collections: 2019 Captain America/Iron Man Big Bang





	1. ONE

**Author's Note:**

> I want to say thanks to Narukyuu for her arts, illustrate Lovecraft's vision are hard and she made a wonderful work. Thank you for so much!
> 
> Also, I say thank you so much! to Catt Kingsgrave for her recommendations, corrections and support. You were so much patient with me and I'll never ever forget that!
> 
> And thanks to the mods of the BB for the opportunity, this year was rough for me and this chance brought me hope in times of darkness. Thank you.

_“I have seen the dark universe yawning_  
_Where the black planets roll without aim,_  
_Where they roll in their horror unheeded,_  
_Without knowledge, or lustre, or name.”_  
― H. P. Lovecraft, Nemesis.

* * *

**Chapter One**

***Earth***

The alarm rang.

With his usual laziness for the tedious routine, Tony opened his eyes, slowly counting every ring until it added nine; not so late but not so early either. A good hour to wake up from a midnight hangover and face the world once again. The daylight passed by the white curtains of his bedroom, touching the large bed and his figure as fingers trying to pull him to the new fresh day outside. He felt tired, missing the voice of Steve waking him up to join into a new routine in the gym or a sudden mission: in his suit and ready for the fight with a mug of black coffee, smiling to him before they got serious. No more. The Avengers were disassembled, and he had lost his money to support the initiative, as well as the government approves.

_"Good morning, Boss. The weather is sunny for the whole day, traffic jams in the main avenues but the alternative roads are clear if you want to visit the new building for the pharmaceutical division with the Board."_

"Thank you, Fri, I love you."

_"Do you want me to call Miss Watson?"_

"I can get ready for myself, thank you very much."

He was pushing new projects to rebuild the Avengers Mansion, but sometimes gettting up and working eight hours straight seemed too much for his mind. Tony sighed and stood up finally, stumbling with a sheet wrapped around him while he was whispering himself how much he would trade any visit or meeting for an emergency call. A pair of weeks passed since he’d last used his armor and the void in his chest was growing every day with the nightmares of those Avengers who died because of Wanda's power. He needed to see them once more, fight at their side to feel alive as the very air to breathe. Tony got dressed in a black suit after a good cold shower and took a cup of coffee before speeding to a new building in his Jaguar. In his path, he saw the remains of the last battle: some posters against the Avengers or the mutants. Scarlet Witch was both Avenger and Mutant, mixing both groups in a bad situation that people still were thinking as a menace.

Tony growled, taking a corner ahead to his new research building. The Board and Mary Jane were there, waiting for him. he looked down at his watch. He was thirty minutes late, despise his taste for punctuality. Using that charming smile, Tony left his car and walked to the group to lose a few hours of his day discussing if the floor decoration was appropriate for a chemical research company, and whether the color of the main doors would inspire trust in their potential customers. It was lunchtime when he kissed Mary Jane on her cheek and said goodbye to lock himself in the workshop for the next twelve hours or more if his bright new ideas finally worked. He didn't think about anything but the inventions to sell until midnight, when a pencil fell from his right hand and he recognized the symptoms from abstinence and fatigue hitting him.

_"Time to sleep, Boss."_

"After a snack, Fri."

_"I don't recall seeing anything edible in the kitchen, Sir."_

Tony wasn't referring to food. He walked to the bar and serviced a good shot of whiskey. Maybe he could fool himself for a while but at some point, his mind got to rebelled and yelled how much he was missing the adrenaline with the Avengers, how much he missed spending time with Steve Rogers, and getting to see him in the Captain America uniform. Tony felt alone and miserable.

The memory of the blonde man looking disappointed because he was drunk in the UN meeting hurt him more than he could accept. Tony was hungry for the companionship of his team his family, but he failed to them. He allowed the Avengers being separated and he lost Steve from his sight. Now the noise of a house full of heroes was gone, and the miserable, empty silence brought on things that Tony never wanted to feel.

_"Boss…"_

"Shut up, Friday. It's only one drink."

All these things happened in a blink the night before, like a movie in fast forward. A bright yellow sun appeared in the large window from the balcony when he finished half of the bottle with Friday telling him the weather and his appointments of the day. He got a private message on his phone when he checked, Tony was surprised to see was from Janet Van Dyne.

_Are you free at noon, Tones? I’d like to talk to you._

_Love, Jan._

"Fri, clear my agenda. I'll be busy."

_"As you wish, Boss."_

Seeing his beloved friend again cheered him, and he took his time to picking the perfect outfit for his meeting with a fashion lover. Once he chose the clothes and got ready to drive, Tony remembered a note on his desk. A message from Strange about reading some disturbances of somewhere. He glanced at it and promised himself he’ll make that call later. Whistling and smiling, the brunette drove to the luxury restaurant where he will be waiting for Janet Van Dyne. The sky was peculiar in his road; blue tinged with pink, clotted over heavy orange-lit clouds, it was either going to rain, or Tony had spent too much time in the studio, watching Steve paint. Some paintings were Tony's portraits, Steve often joked that he liked those paintings best.

"Come on, Tony, focus. Stop thinking bullshit."

Jan appeared soon, wearing a beautiful yellow short dress. It was summer and the weather in New York was perfect for light clothes. She was gorgeous and he told her so when they hugged each other in their greeting. Tony closed his eyes for a moment, he recorded that moment in his memory if the famous Wasp was there to tell him that she would never come back to the Avengers even if the team reunited. He was missing them more than he could accept.

"Jan, you look amazing."

"You look awful, Tony. What were you doing, uh?"

"You know, science."

"Sure, sure."

"May I offer you a seat? Order anything you want."

"Of course, I will choose, you make terrible food choices, Tony."

They laughed; Stark called a waiter while they talked about nothing in particular, merely random conversations like avoiding the important. Stark didn't want to push Jan in that painful memory about Jennifer and Wanda, she looked happy and calm after being in a coma. Of course, he wished to know about the rest of the Avengers, Jan was the one who always communicated with all the team. Their dishes came, they ate chattering and making jokes about the fashion and how the politicians thought of the mutants, a recent topic in the newspapers. Maybe both had many things to talk without bringing up their rupture as Avengers, but the mention of Hank Pym forced Tony to ask about Jan's health and Pym's latest works.

"So, how is Hank doing?"

"You know, always working in his science."

"Are you both understanding each other?"

"I can see from this spot what are you doing, Anthony Edward Stark," Jan pouted, "I am fine, okay? Hank is… making a great effort and I trust him."

"Just checking."

"Thank you so much for that, but really, I'm great. Meanwhile, Hank doesn't forget to breathe and eat, so we can work it out our relationship."

"Is he doing something important right now?"

"Now that now that you mention it, in fact, yes…" She frowned, thinking with her elbows on the table, "Hank detected an anomaly. A disturbance, he called it."

"Where?"

"From a radar station in California, he confirmed it with Richards. Both deducted that maybe it’s an only resonance of… you know."

Tony smiled but he was worried.

Wanda.

"Yeah, I guess if something is wrong, the team could come back together to deal with it."

"Do you miss us, Tony?"

"Do you mean the discussions, doubts, and fights between us?"

She rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that."

"Maybe."

"I heard that Steve went back to his Brooklyn apartment."

"Really? That doesn't surprise me. He loves that old stinky place."

"Tony!"

"It's true!"

"You should visit him."

"One of these days. Dessert?"

After a good conversation about cats, short dresses and the ultimate shoes for the next fall, Tony said goodbye to Jan, waiting with a smile until her car disappeared in the avenue. The brunette raised his head to see that sky so weird without rain or wind. A disturbance.

He drove back to his home and changed clothes to get inside his workshop which was full of music for the rest of the night. Stark was happy to send the new inventions to sell before the deadline and letters to his investors before he remembered to call Doctor Strange, and heard almost the same words Jan had said. Only hadn't caught again anything like that in the following days.

He was watching very closely any change in the universe energy until he was completely sure was related to Wanda’s power, or merely a coincidence.

"You should talk about this with Captain Rogers."

"Thank you for the recommendation, my friend. Now, if you excuse me, I have work to do."

"Do it, Tony."

"Yeah, I'll do it later, Stephen. Bye."

Why was he avoiding the topic? Tony thought about the little chance of being a complete asshole who didn't want to call at the precious Captain only because the disturbance might be nothing and he would seem a paranoid. The routine returned thanks to Tesla for his mental state and Tony worked until midnight when he stopped for a break, and caught a glimpse of the orange-brown color in the darkened sky. It wasn't clouded, neither an aurora boreal, just the atmosphere was being weird. Stark asked Friday for a quick analysis of the air composition. Everything was normal but the color persisted in the same way that his cowardice, thought as he left the workshop for a couple of minutes to drink coffee and rest.

The silence was his enemy around the kitchen, where once was laughs and the noise of something crashing, now the only sound that Tony could hear was the music inside the workshop, like a whisper from he was. With the third cup, Tony sat in front of the kitchen bar and stared into nothing as he slowly drank his coffee. What if Scarlet's powers could break the universe's structure? Charles had kept many secrets about how powerful a mutant like Wanda could be in time.

His breakdown had cost everything for the Avengers, and when his glance fell on the phone, he just thought in one thing: _call Steve_.

But what in the name of Curie's teeth he could say? _Hi, Steve, it's me, Tony, remember me? People use to call me Ironman. Answer the phone you fucking proud bastard. Why do you doubt me, uh? Mister I-Don't-Do-Mistakes_. Tony growled a little and put down his mug. He was angry but not with Cap, with himself because he hadn't stopped Wanda until it was too late. And the cause of his anger was fear of being rejected by a handsome man for being an alcoholic.

Simple, yet complicated.

A whistle called Stark's attention; it was a strange sound in the middle of the night that made him flinch. Making a joke about ghosts in his home, Tony walked outside to the balcony with his fifth coffee. He noted a curious form in the orange-brown color mixing with the dark blue. It looked like a claw. And it was moving as if that claw could have life. Tony puffed, rolling his eyes and telling himself he needed to get more sleep. But what if it wasn't just him? He didn't know if maybe millions of citizens of New York were seeing the same hallucination; a long, sharp hand, slowly and deliberately tearing the sky apart. What if the world needed the Avengers but Steve refused to work if Ironman was in? Tony's mind was punishing his already tormented soul like the best executioner from Torquemada's team.

_"Boss… I think you’ve drunk enough."_

"Fri, darling, let me enjoy my coffee."

_"Sir?"_

"What?"

_"That… isn't coffee."_

"What…?"

Tony looked down at his cup that wasn't a mug, it was a glass with whiskey in it. He frowned and cursed searching for the coffee machine only to see a bottle of whiskey on the kitchen bar, half empty. That didn't make sense.

"Friday, I… I was drinking coffee."

_"I'm very sorry, sir. But you have been drinking alcohol since the beginning."_

"No, I am very sure that I had a cup of coffee in my hand while I was asking you analyzed the orange spot in the sky."

_"Boss,"_ Friday sounded worried, _"You didn't ask me anything since you finished talking to Doctor Strange. You only stared at the wall and later you walked to the bar and took the bottle from it."_

"No… that wasn't…"

_"I have recordings, Boss. Do you want to see them?"_

"Play them, Fri."

Several blue phantom screens appeared in front of Stark, who left the glass on the kitchen bar and watched, stunned to see how he behaved like a zombie staring at the wall where he had his armors. After a while, as if he remembered something important, he walked from the workshop to the kitchen and took the bottle as Friday explained before.

"But the sky…"

_"The sky is fine, Boss. You can look at it for yourself."_

Tony did it. He couldn't believe his eyes when the midnight sky showed a perfect dark blue color all the horizon. No orange-brown giant claw anywhere. Tony covered his mouth with a hand, turning around to the kitchen again. He smelled of whiskey, not coffee and he was drinking without remembering. What was happening? Tony came back from Jan's date perfectly fine, not wanting to to drink alcohol at all. He should have been able to tell a thirst for coffee from a craving for booze. What had happened to him while he’d stood there doing nothing all day?

_"Do you want me to call Doctor Richards?"_

"No," Tony gulped, "I-I am fine. I'm going to sleep now."

"_Okay, Boss_."

Tony walked slowly to his bedroom; he was starting to feel the effects of the whiskey. Dizzy and confused, he reached the door and opened it. The window next to his bed was wide open, and he could see that orange-brown claw as if the distant cloud was only meters from his window. Tony shook his head and closed the bedroom door, and turning towards the stairs that would take him to his workshop. _I’m too drunk to work. Someone’s making me do this.._. Someone who already did it before in front of the fucking whole UN, no less. Wanda Maximoff. Was she using her powers again? But, then, Strange would have told him about this danger and he was very calm even when he talked about the disturbance.

He felt the corridor like a marathon itself, the walls grown and the floor extended beyond his line of sight as an eternal carpet. Tony cursed and fell on his knees, closing his eyes at the horrible feeling of being lost and terrified of something he couldn't explain. He wanted to call Steve right at that moment to ask him to help, ask Cap to rescue him like a damsel in distress because the air temperature dropped down very fast and Tony found himself shaking. In the distance, more an echo than a real voice, he heard Friday calling him… no, shouting at him… no, no, no… she was warning him about an intruder. Intruder? Where? Tony raised his head to look around him in the corridor. He was alone, but at the same time, he could feel on his skin the danger coming from nowhere, a premonition running into his blood and breath.

"St…"

No, he couldn't. he shouldn't.

Tony bit his lower lip and frowned at his hands on the cold floor. Was he crying? What a coward and useless man, terrified and confused by a simple illusion! He was Ironman, an Avenger and for the matters, a brave man. Steve told him that many times and he believed it.

With closed eyes. Tony tried to stand up but his legs refused to cooperate with him, just right now. Someone was laughing? Who was? He breathed deep and slowly to calm himself and use that amazing brain of his and resolve his crisis like the mature man that he was supposed to be. Call Steve. Okay, maybe that wasn't a bad idea after all.

"Friday, c-c…"

A cold breeze touched his cheek and Tony jumped from his spot on the floor and ran like a mad man to his workshop, ordering Friday to close everything with a command to protect himself. He stumbled again but he controlled body until he was inside his temple, shaking like a leaf with sweat running from his temples and neck. He embraced his legs only a few seconds before noticing a shadow behind him in the reflection of the glass wall. Tony jumped again with a shout and called his gauntlets ready to shoot, but when he turned, the intruder was gone. Tony’s heart beat so hard that hurt. The air was too cold and everything had become a blur.

_“Boss? What are you try…?”_

Tony jumped at Friday’s voice, shooting without thinking about the ceiling. While his AI shouted, the blast threw him back, making him stumbled between a chair and tools on the floor until he crashed with a worktable. He couldn’t stop the motion of his head hitting the metal corner. Friday called him but everything started to go black as he fell unconscious.

***Hell***

The scratching sound woke him up and Tony opened his eyes with great effort. His eyelids felt heavy, like after he had drunk too much, like the rest of his body which complained at his first attempt to move from his spot on the cold floor. A whistle with the smell of something rusty reached Stark's nose, helping him to get up and realized three important things: one, he was awfully hungover. somehow, he finished very drunk and has experienced an awful hangover from it. Two, whatever had blow up the ceiling of his workshop, nobody had come to check on him afterward. Three, for some unknown reason, Tony was sure that the scratching sound in the walls, and rusty smell in the air were very, very bad.

"What the hell…?” He frowned, “Friday? Hello?”

Tony was alone.

Something had hit the ceiling of his precious workshop, creating a big hole from which whistled a draft heavy with rust that coated the walls and what was left of his armors. Tony immediately thought of a biological weapon watching the scene in front of him, and ran, a little dizzy from his hangover. He tried to find an armor that could work without Friday who was missing as the rest of the systems or electric power. Fortunately, he had one armor that worked manually, made long time ago when he tasted his bad luck with the system offline just like in that moment. He engines it put on him to fly through the hole, investigate what happened was his first action.

All the buildings, houses, and other constructions were destroyed, left in ruins that the orange dust hit with a wind coming from a red sunset beyond the light brown sea that yesterday was the Atlantic Ocean.

“Oh, my God.”

Tony was surprised -and shocked- to find out that all New York was devastated like an Armageddon or the Apocalypses during his blackout. He was alive miraculously.

"What is the name of the dying stars is this?" Stark asked himself turning around and going further west to see if the rest of his city suffered the same fate.

As far as he could see, it seemed that the whole world was in that apocalyptic state. The clouds were orange and the dust were always twisting in the air against the ruins, whistling between the damaged metals and the broken concrete. Tony could see no sign of any kind of life wherever he looked. He was the only living thing there, watching a massive orange-brown sun setting like an old red star dying between a copper sky and brown sea, growling like a lion feeling its death approaching. Everything was very strange, felt wrong or maybe everything felt wrong and terrifying. Tony wanted to throw up, so he landed on a roof, removing his helmet and taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. He smelled that rusty wind, facing again the old sun dying on the horizon, his red light touching the ruins.

Then he saw it.

Three blocks ahead, there was a figure standing like him, watching the sun apparently without noticing Tony's presence. Tony calculated the figure's height, about nine feet tall with a body that looked insectile but more feline and with an exoskeleton made of translucid that allowed to see its dark scarlet musculature. Tony gripped his helmet, the alien looked like a spider balancing between its legs, hanging between seven bony tails like a baby in a swing. Sharp and long claws warned Tony about getting close but he needed answers and that monster was his only option.

Tony was prepared to fight, flying carefully behind the alien, to remain watching the growling sun. stronger, taller, and surely faster than he was, for the monster there wasn't need to feel threatened. Tony wanted to prove his luck with a pep talk and found out what happened to New York and why the alien was there while he descended with both hands up ready to shoot at the first sign of attack.

"Who are you and what is going on?"

The alien didn't move at all, so Tony was about to ask again when the seven tails detached from the floor and joined together as one, twisting when its owner turned back on its two muscular strong legs with claws tapping the concrete below them.

"Don't move anymore or I'll shoot you."

_Those cannons are for false things. I am real._

"What…?" Tony blinked; the monster had spoken in his mind.

_It took you a long time to come here._

"Who are you? What are you?"

A deep giggle escaped from whatever was its mouth, showing a large number of sharp, wet fangs. The alien shook his heavy and long tail in the air.

_Your false Gods put a false name on me. They called me Minister of Justice._

"But then you are….?"

_Messenger. A vassal of my true masters, the original Gods._

"Okay, you have my attention now. Who are those original Gods?"

_The ones whom time or death cannot defeat. The ones who wait patiently with open eyes craving their freedom. And soon, they are going to wake up, as you did now._

"Am I awake? This seems to be more like a nightmare."

_Your desires are not the concern of my masters, mortal thing._

"Mortal thing? Listen here, you monster. I want a straight answer right now. What happened? Where is everybody? Why are you here?"

The alien raised his head. There was something uncomfortable in his features that Tony couldn't pinpoint until he noticed those eyes. They were human eyes, blue ones with a familiar expression. As his own eyes. Tony felt his neck break out in goosebumps.

_You take for granted that your pitiful world is the measure for the rest of the universe or other realities. Humans aren't the best of creation, thinking in your needs or desires as a rule for others only show how inferior you are. And at the same time that makes you one thing: food for the strongest. This world is dying like the rest of the other worlds because lies can't survive the power of truth and the truth is that our Great Old Gods are waking and their will is taking form._

"I'm dreaming and you're some type of persistent thought of my subconscious."

_Then wake up if you feel that you're the commander on this matter._

Tony tensed. He couldn't do it. Maybe he was too drunk or too tired, but he couldn't do it. Both of his cannons shot straight at the alien which never dodged the attacks. It stalked around Tony on four legs, like a hunting cat while the smoke faded away. Tony only followed the monster without dropping his hands, shaking a little when he saw the same disappointed expression on those familiar blue eyes. Tony was starting to get an awful feeling about the real face of that alien.

"Tell me your real name," He gulped.

_Are you trying to command me?_

"Take it as a new fresh talk, like ‘Hi, my name is Anthony Edward Stark', something like that."

_Why should I tell you my name?_

“Because it’s nice and we can talk better?”

_You need to know my name to feel secure._

“Yeah, right. Go on.”

_My name is Ashatan._

"A good name, Ashatan. Now, can you help me to wake up from my nightmare?"

_You just attacked me, why should I help you?_

"Because is my dream and I want to wake up right now."

Ashatan stopped in its tracks, standing up on his lower legs and turning to see the giant sun.

_You're feeling lost._

"Just a little, yes. Wake me up?"

_I can show you something, instead._

"Oh, I know that technique, sweetheart. Treat me with an illusion to convince me to join your cause. Thanks, but it's a little late for that, you need a better publisher if you allow me the comment."

_Joining me never meant to be an option. Showing you the truth could be amusing._

"Cut the fable and get straight to the moral, would you?? You told me that it took me too long to get here. So, were you expecting me?"

Ashatan made a chuckling sound, but instead of an answer, living shadows began to appear all around them. Like hunt dogs, or skinny reptiles hissing while they crawled around both figures on the roof.

The sunset was eternal, nothing changed since Tony flew down from his tower. He wondered if that monster would kill him with those shadows or use its claws will do the job. An interesting bet on his life, but he hadn't something to lose. If he was sleeping, then he'll wake up wherever. If he was having a heart attack, well that was nothing he hadn’t expected for years. But if he was trapped with that thing in front of him and the shadows, no one would save him, and he would die never knowing what had brought him to that fate.

_Don't worry, these dogs aren't for you. They're waiting for their treats._

"Treats?"

_From other realities like yours._

Tony didn’t want to ask. Suddenly the sky growled like an old lion calling his pack, multiples lightning flashes appeared everywhere and bodies started to fall from the heavy clouds like snowflakes. His jaw dropped when he saw that all those humans were still alive, screaming as they feel, like dusty red comets from the sky enveloped in ashes and dust like some kind of comets. The "dogs" howled and howled and ran, jumping when the people came into their reach, biting hard their flesh. Before Tony could do anything, those strangers become ashes completely and disappeared, then the shadow dogs attacked another person and another.

"What is this?!" The brunette demanded.

_I already told you, they come from another universe that they destroyed by themselves._

"These dogs are killing them!"

_No, just playing around a little, that prey belong to my masters. This is just… a passage._

The falling humans faded away, relieving Stark from the infernal view of their hunt. He turned to see the monster which looked pleased.

"What a relief you are. Answer my questions now, Ashatan. Please."

_Indeed, I am a relief…_

The noisy sound of a horn interrupted their conversation, it came from the sky, as Tony calculated but the instrument or machine that produced that call was invisible to his eyes. He didn't feel any sign of his hangover by now, he was fully awake, spinning around to search the origin of the horn sound. Stark only saw the sky and the ruins vibrate and tremble, shattering very slowly towards the growling sun as if this dying star could have life, sucking the Earth into its his orange-red belly. Tony frowned at the idea of being watching something so surreal: corners, angles and every single line of the landscape moved impossibly. New York wasn't New York but at the same time, it was, his view was different, twisting and pointing at the sun on the horizon.

_This is the power of my masters._

"They are in drugs, aren't they?"

Ashatan growled, hitting his long heavy tail on the ground which broke. Tony raised his hands as a peace symbol.

"My bad. If your Gods are so powerful, why do they need me?"

_Who said that they need you?_

"You were expecting me, and for me, that seems like your Gods were looking for a consultant. If you were so kind as to answer my questions, I can give them a discount."

_Jokes don't have space here._

Tony sighed, narrowing his eyes. "This is the future, right? You're showing me our future."

_The inevitable future, yes._

"How can I change it?"

_You can't._

"Then why show me this? What is the purpose?"

_A revelation that you were looking for since you began your Ironman crusade._

"Now you read minds? You're a surprise, Ashatan. If this is our future, we can change it for the better."

_This is better._

"No, I'm sorry to disagree but no."

The monster stared at him a few minutes that made Tony uneasy, the hunting shadows around went down into the streets, leaving them alone again. Behind Ashatan, the dying sun growled while the sky, the sea, and the ruins started to fall on it, grain by grain, drop by drop, atom by atom. A catastrophic future. Tony tensed, he wanted to wake up now, be free of Ashatan's gaze and… do something.

_You already have the answers, but you're refusing to accept them. If you only listen to my masters, if you take them in your soul, you wouldn't be so scared._

"I am not scared… too much. I want to wake up now."

_Now is a complicated word, now could be your past or your future._

"Please, the rhetoric bored me the first time around. Save your words for something else."

A sharp long claw pointed at him. _You want answers, I will give you answers_.

"With a condition, doesn't it?"

_A revelation, I said_.

"I don't know what you are trying to achieve with me but let me tell you something. I had survived so many things that believe me, this is nothing in comparison. You're only a fucking moron of another dimension."

_Maybe I am only a messenger but you, Anthony Edward Stark, are the blind one here._

"Speak clearly, then!"

The monster laughed; Tony was sure of that. Its tail divided into the seven fine tails, nailing each sharp point on the roof again and raising it on the air as their first encounter.

_I will wake you up._

"At least! Thank you."

_You'll understand_. Ashatan showed at him his fangs, with that low giggle. _No matter what, you'll end worshipping the real Gods._

"No way. I never even met them."

_Let me open your eyes and introduce you to them._

"How…?"

Tony tensed when he heard a strong whistle. It was coming from the sun in the distance. Once he turned his head from the monster to the sun, he watched how the red star beat and breathed like a living thing before a giant eye appeared upon the sun, opening its eyelids and fixing its sight on Tony who shouted in pure terror. Tony was looking straight to the nothing, the void and the eternal darkness, with the chaos singing and the madness calling him. Everything started to twirl and become black around him. Stark saw himself falling to the red sun as the ruins and the sky with the giant eye following his path. The world moved, bent itself in an impossible angle to make him fall towards the beating sun. He heard behind him a crazy laugh, Ashatan's laugh.

***Heaven***

_"… Good morning, America, this is John T. Williams and this is the News from Marvel's Radio. It's seven o'clock, a good time for…"_

Tony jumped off the bed when he heard his alarm blared the unfamiliar radio station. he slapped the radio's off button and looked around sleepily and looked around very confused and sleepy. He was in cotton pajamas, and a place he’d never seen before. Walls of a small apartment covered with bookshelves surrounded him. A small bed in a corner covered with science’s posters. The wooden floor with clothes of his size. A backpack, a forgotten lunch box. In front of the bed was a circular table with one chair next to a basic kitchen. Two narrow doors seemed to led to the bathroom next to a bad imitation of a closet.

Where was he?

Tony frowned, he remembered Ashatan, the run sun, and the giant eye when he has fallen…

A ringing phone distracted him; it was coming from under a pile of clothes on the floor. Empty bottles of alcohol made him think about another hangover or… maybe he wasn’t alone? He wished to call out for his companion but another ringtone changed his mind, waiting for somebody to appear.

Nothing. He was alone.

He looked at the dim light under the clothes, evaluating his options. What if that phone was his? What if it wasn’t? Finally, Tony searched for the phone and answer without thinking too much in what he was doing until he heard Pepper's voice on the other side of the line.

_"Anthony, you are moving your ass right now, aren't you?"_

"Hi, Peps, I…"

_"Please, don't make Rhodey get mad. I will send you a taxi. This day is very important for him, Tony."_

"Okay."

_"Twenty minutes."_

Pepper hung up and Tony blinked, confused. He saw pinned in a wall a plaque with his name, so he stood up to see and confirm what he was reading.

_Research Excellence Award,_

_Chief Engineer Anthony Edward Stark_

_Rhodes Laboratories International. _

"WHAT?!"

When he turned the plaque to read who owned such laboratories, he almost fainted.

_Ph.D. James Rhodes._

_CEO_

_Rhodes Labs International_

"WHAAAAAT?!"

Ashatan didn't wake him up, the damned monster put him in another reality, the fucking bastard. One where his best friend Rhodey was CEO -and probably genius- of a company that looked very similar to Stark Industries. Tony growled while he got prepared, ready to break that illusion and find out what was going on with Ashatan. When he walked out of his apartment, he was surprised again because the skyline was unmistakable Brooklyn. Steve's Brooklyn.

The taxi arrived and honked in front of his building. Tony saw a newspaper lost in a window that he picked up before ran to get in the car. While he scanned the paper to understand how this world worked, he also watched the city pass by the windows. Everything seemed the same, except that he didn't see any sign of the Avengers, his name or another superhero but Captain America.

"Oh my God, I'm a nobody!" Tony exclaimed to himself.

"Amen to that, brother," The taxi driver answered.

Tony taxi ride ended in front of a very luxurious building, a well-designed high rise with an elegant, serious logo over the doors: Rhodes Labs International. With a deep breath, Tony walked in, feeling uneasy as he joined the line to show his ID at the security desk. He took the same elevator as the rest, and heard orders from who seemed to be his boss or his black vest with white letters was lying when he reached his way into a workspace that looked almost -almost- as his beloved workshop.

One young man approached him with a fond smile. He had blond hair that reached his shoulder, square glasses, a few extra pounds, and a smile that made it seem like he’d known Tony for years.

"Are you nervous, Tony?" Asked the young man - Keith O'Connell, according to his ID badge, "Of course you are. The press will be here!"

"Yeah, it's something that doesn't happen too many times, isn't it?" He answered, trying to get more information.

"I know! I mean, we're the heart of Rhodes Labs International but the public has never known about us until now that Dr. Rhodes is going to work with Captain America. Captain America! It's like a Jackpot."

"And you don't know how big it would be."

"Uh? What do you say?"

"I said that we have to look serious and confident to the press."

"Don't worry Tony. I'll cover you; I know you get very shy in front of strangers," Keith winked at him, tapping his shoulder.

"You know me, my friend," Tony tried to smile, to cover the surge of anger inside him, Shy? Him?

"That's why we're friends; to help each other. But you know Dr. Rhodes will look out for you."

"At least that didn't change."

"Or course not, silly. You'll help him too many times with his inventions. And we both are aware that you're the only one on the Division that understands his genius."

"Figures."

"Oh, you're already nervous!" Keith laughed and shook his head, "I have to prepare my space. Do the same, Tony, we have to look Like the marvelous engineers we pretend to be."

Tony narrowed his eyes, looking down at his workstation. He recognized many tools and blueprints from his real workshop but these had little differences. While he was busy trying to understand what he was doing there. Rhodey's voice made him turn on his heels and witness the entry of his friend in the same way as he used to do it when he was… Tony shook his head, exchanging a look with Keith who smiled and gave him two thumbs up. Reporters and photographers clicked away as Rhodes extended an arm toward the doors and introduced his guest. Tony's heart beat fast when he heard the unmistakable sound of a pair of loved boots. Captain America came through the door and smiled for the press as he shook hands with the CEO of Rhodes Lab International.

Steve was looking the same, for Tony's taste. With that blue uniform, his shield, and those eyes searching around like the soldier he was. When they stopped on him, Tony was about to raise his hand in greeting when someone from the press asked for a photo of the whole place. Steve Stepped aside to Rhodey, giving him his back without reacting to Tony's presence - a perfect stranger to him. Tony gulped, looking down in disappointment but he didn't have time to say more because Rhodey talked, began leading the press through the lab, showing off his engineers and their projects.

“Welcome to my most precious level in this building, ladies and gentlemen. The Engineer Division were all the innovations and inventions are made. We have the Robotics, Prosthetics and others complicated departments to watch if you are so kind to follow me to present you every person working here.”

When was Tony's turn, Rhodey shook his hand and presented him at Cap.

"Captain America, this is my best engineer and friend, Tony Stark."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Stark," Said Cap, as if they’d never even met.

"Nice to meet you too, Captain," Tony wished to run and hide.

Rhodey continue explaining to the audience. “All of you are here to see our next big project, something that would change the world. Rhodes Lab International, Shield and our national hero, Captain America will be one in a new initiative”.

With the technology that Rhodey created, Captain America would have better chances of being successful and better protected in his dangerous missions. An alliance that everybody was expecting, Keith, whispering in Tony's ear as the CEO led the press out of the workshop area.

If that was an Ashatan's tricks, it was very convincing.

"Tones! Come here!"

He walked to his friend, smiling politely to Captain America who was more engaged in the blueprints of a new shield than on him.

"Cap, Tony and I have created an armor that you can wear over your uniform. It's light and responses to the command voice."

"Really? Rhodey, you shouldn't…"

"We are friends and with this little minion at my side, I have so many opportunities to help you. We don't want to wake up and read in a newspaper that you lost your life because of your equipment."

"Thank you so much, Rhodey," Steve smiled, looking at Tony, "And thank you, Mr. Stark."

"Call me Tony."

"Thank you."

Rhodey laughed and Tony did it obliged, returning to his desk where Keith was waiting for him, excited to hear what Captain America told to him. He felt empty and very lonely without the familiar warmth in Rogers’ voice. Distracted as he was, he didn't see the tool falling from his robotic arm on his workstation, making that horrible sound of the metal bouncing on the floor. Everybody turned around to see him, some frowning and others whispering in giggles. Tony felt his cheeks became warm and cursed between teeth for his luck, recovering his tool. His hand collided with another. It was Captain America.

"Be careful, Tony."

"Tones, calm down, Cap isn't going to bite you," Rhodey winked and called Ca at his side, "Come, we have to catch up with the press."

"Let's go, Rhodey," Steve answered.

"Oh my God! When I swore that you couldn't do anything embarrassing, you did!" Keith laughed and squeezed Tony's shoulders with an arm, "Fortunately, Captain America is a gentleman."

"What luck here," Tony said bitterly.

"Cheer up, Tony! You are going to work with Captain America! That's amazing and well deserved. Now, it's time to go back to our little world."

"Little indeed, Keith."

Tony didn't know how he could manage to finish the day in that place without screaming or throwing something. Keith said goodbye at his bus stop, leaving a confused Tony to walk a little before took a taxi back to Brooklyn, trying to understand why Ashatan was toying with him. What was the point in that?

The night reached him when he reached the street where he was supposed to live, it was lonely with the lamp lights illuminating the sidewalks. Tony stopped in an alley, leaning against the wall with his head down.

That monster wouldn't win, he needed to think and plan an escape from that strange world. Where were the other Avengers? The Mutants? He could start from there. Feeling better he made his way home, and to bed, where he hoped to block out the unpleasant surprises, as the rain that had begun to fall.

He dreamed of his Steve, with those blue eyes shining because of him, a laugh so lovely and a squeeze from Steve's hands taking away the mug because he had drunk too much coffee. Tony woke up with a jump, it was past midnight and the rain continued falling outside. The rattling was low but consistent and a slight fog had come up. Dreaming about coffee made him start a cup brewing, watching the lonely streets outside through the rain-washed glass. His eyes adjusted to the darkness for mission and many nights working without lights caught something weird; a shadow moving. A person, maybe two, but somehow the shapes reminded him of Ashatan’s shadow hounds, making Tony certain that the monster was nearby.

Tony didn't waste time. He went out and find those shadows, follow them. Those hounds were a way to find Ashatan and claim his return to his world.

Using the darkness to his favor, he tracked the black figures moving between alleys and trees, running fast. Tony ended up next to a bridge. The light's lamps illuminated the shadows, showing that they were Hydra agents instead of monster dogs. In this world, he didn't have armor or artificial intelligence to help him, fighting against them could be a foolish move in his current state. Considering that these two agents could have support somewhere hidden, Tony opted for the shameful retreat. Then he heard a whistle and his skin bristled, as he poked his head from his hideout to see that marvelous shield flying through the sky. The shield hit with perfect aim the back of the men who fall on the stone ground in a heavy thud. Captain America appeared from nowhere, recovering his shield in time to fight the rest of the Hydra's agents. He remained hidden, watching the fight until another shadow appeared behind Steve.

"Steve! Look out!" Shouted Tony without thinking.

Cap turned back to him with a shocked expression and twisted again to punch the HYDRA agent, knocking him out. Tony took the opportunity to run away from the scene as fast as his legs could do it, and he did it very well. Tony stopped to get his bearings. If he ran again, Steve would spot him. He needed to hide long enough for Cap to lose his trail. Tony knew Steve long enough to figure out that he will think of him as a spy or a traitor. He chose to hide in the nearest alley, behind a trash container, kneeling and hugging himself. The rain wet him, he didn’t move, make a sound and revealed his hidings. Captain America didn't take too much time in appearing, running around the street, searching his enhanced senses in the night with rain.

Tony huddled, closing his eyes and waiting until he heard nothing. He got tired, trembling because of the cold rain and the earlier adrenaline saving Steve's ass, the same ass who was hunting him. He peeked, a little bit to make sure that Cap wasn't around anymore. He listened with apprehension for any sound of those boots or the whistle of the shield in flight. Nothing.

He waited a couple more minutes before stood up from his crouch and limped out of the alley. He was almost to the street when a dead weight fell on him from above. Tony tried to scream but a hand covered his mouth, crushing his face.

"Who the fuck are you?" Steve sweared, for Tony’s surprise.

Steve's blue eyes shone furiously and Tony swore that he would die right there, poetic justice for all the things he did to Steve. He could only shake his head, denying whatever Cap thought of him, with the weight of the super-soldier on him. The man looked at him with anger, narrowing his eyes for long seconds before released Tony and pulling them both upright in a single movement.

"Speak now or I will break your neck."

"You're more savage than before."

"What?"

"I'm Tony Stark."

"And I'm the Queen of England."

"Who I am to judge?"

"Leave the humor for another occasion. Answer my question."

"I already answered it."

"How do you know my name?"

"Because…" Tony sighed, that it will be more difficult than he thought, "I'm freezing here, maybe you're an enhanced human but I am not. Can you let me go to my apartment to change clothes and drink something warm like a cup of coffee?"

"The night is with you, but not for so long. Move, I will follow you. Try to escape again and you will taste my fist."

"I prefer to taste something else," Tony whispered, starting to walk.

The midnight rain was their only witness, two men walking one behind the other until they reached the main door of the building where Tony was supposed to have lived almost all his life. He took his keys and opened the door, feeling Cap's eyes on his back. If he made one wrong move, that shield would break his neck. Tony sighed when he opened the door, feeling small and vulnerable, in that place he couldn't call his armor or hide on his workshop. Such things belonged to Rhodey in this universe. Stripping off his wet jacket and shirt, he went, half naked, to the kitchen.

"Do you want coffee?" Tony asked Steve.

"I want answers."

The genius giggled. "So stubborn."

"Who are you? For real."

"Tony Stark… but not this Tony Stark," He pointed at one photograph where he was posing with Rhodey in Rhodes Labs International, "I fell here by accident and I'm trying to figure out how to return to my universe."

"Are you a mutant?"

"What do mutants have to do with me? And you can leave your precious shield on the sofa, I don't bite."

"Where is the real Tony Stark?"

"Now, that's a good question," Tony blinked, he never had thought of that until Cap mentioned it, "I don't know, I hope he's in my universe tasting my sweet bitter life."

Steve frowned, walking with big steps to grab Tony’s hand and spin him in place like a rag doll.

"Stop playing."

"Ouch, that hurt."

"Look me in the eyes and tell me what are you doing here."

"I don’t know. I'm Tony Stark, maybe your Tony Stark but in a different way."

"My…?"

Tony closed his mouth, barely breathing with his eyes fixed on Steve's. He couldn't help staring at those lips and the way his golden hair was plastered on his temples by the rain. Cap was too close and he could smell his sweat mixed with the damp, and the steady breathing of a man who knows how to be in control of the situation. The rebel side in Tony raised its head but he smashed it with an iron fist in his mind, barely smiling at the man in front of him. The coffeemaker dinged, filling the air with the strong smell of the black coffee. Tony tried to speak again; his throat suddenly felt tight because Steve's blue eyes darkened in a spark that he recognized but he never thought he would see on Captain America.

Steve Rogers kissed him.

And hard.

Everything lost its meaning when Steve’s hands roamed Tony's body. Tony’s hand roamed too, pushing Steve far from the kitchen and in direction to the bed. He thought of a box where he kept supplies for the moment, leaving Steve fell on the bed just enough to pull out the box and bring with him condoms that he showed it, because he wanted Steve to be sure about what was about to happen and because he wanted to tease him. If Ashatan intended to make this some kind of trap, Tony would spring it with grace and enthusiasm. Even if it was only an illusion, he would embrace the lie and never return to the world where nobody needed him anymore. Where he carried the world on his tired shoulders. There, he only was a common man with a little luck and a good brain.

"Tony…"

His name whispered on those lips fired his lust, Tony almost jumped on Steve to kiss him and undressed him between the horny sounds that filled the apartment. Tony laughed at Steve's despair when his hands couldn't open his fly, tearing them instead. He didn't lose any detail on the soldier’s body, perfect by the serum and because he wanted so much to see it in the nights alone where had imagined how it could be to fuck Steve Rogers and hear him moan. Many erections raised in Captain America's name. Now, Tony could taste the precum on Rogers, making Steve anxious and later interested when a little lesson about sex between men had to be done. Or the funny question of who would top. Tony smiled and kissed him twice in happiness.

They forgot the coffee on the counter or the heavy rain outside. Their concentration was on the other's body, the other's sounds and caresses while their bodies found how to match. Steve growled at the friction of their dicks, biting Tony's right shoulder before Tony rolled on the bed, giving him his back with a pack of lube in his hand. It was a complete and irrational madness that Tony adored with all the strength that he kept deep in his heart, just for Cap, everything for him. He rested his left cheek on the pillow when Steve's fingers started to play inside him and flinched with a low moan calling his name. Nothing compared at the moment when he felt the blonde pushing into him even with the clumsy preparation.

"Steve…!"

Tony breathed hard, gripping hard when Steve intertwined their fingers and waited for Tony to adjust. He felt tears in his eyes when Rogers kissed his neck in reassurance, one intuitive hand snaking under Tony’s body to touch his erection and helped him to relax. Could this happen in his world if Tony could be sincere with him? Tony wondered as he moved his hips to let Steve know he was ready.

“Tony… is…”

“Wonderful?” Tony teased, with a gasp.

Steve smiled against his neck, kissing it later. “Wonderful is a good word to describe it, sweetheart.”

Being embraced by two strong arms, hearing silly words whispered in his ear between the gasps and moans and ramming every second faster than the previous one. Perfect. That was his next short coherent thought, whimpering before searching for Steve’s lips once more.

Maybe he forgot that he was with a super-soldier with super stamina, but Tony never regretted that, not even when he started to get sore. Ladies and gentlemen, Captain America didn't have a refractory period. Tony held on tight on the pillow for his life, not quite able to laugh for the gasps being forced out of him. Probably in the morning, his neighbors would knock on the door to complain about the banging and the shouting, but this was his moment, and Tony enjoyed it to the hilt. He bit hard the pillow when he reached his orgasm for the last time and felt Steve’s dick filled him with hot cum with a low growl on his ear.

They remained connected, panting until Tony had to fidget under the press of Steve's weight. Cap sighed and remove the condom when he pulled out of Tony. An awkward silence came between them, the rain continued pouring on the streets and the coffee's smell ascending to the ceiling. Tony knew that something was wrong with Steve at the very moment when he turned on the bed and tried to touch his wet chest. The man evaded his hand and stood up looking immediately for his uniform on the floor.

"Steve?"

"Maybe you aren't a mutant or a Skrull, maybe you are telling me the truth but this won't be happening again."

"Then, why…?"

"You're Rhodey's best friend, Tony. I can't do this to him."

"You two… are…?"

Steve denied slowly, without looking at him. "No, it is called respect, Tony. I respect Rhodey and his friends. I shouldn’t..."

"You're a son of a bitch," Tony frowned, hissing, "You can fuck me but you can trust me?"

"You brought me here for that, didn't you?"

Tony opened big his mouth as his eyes. "That's…"

"Listen, since I saw you in Rhodes Labs you had my attention. You saved my life on the bridge and surely, you're attractive enough to make me fall for you. But I have a mission more important than this and I promise Rhodey to help him no matter what."

"Always putting your duty before your feelings, Cap," Tony said with venom.

The soldier turned back to him, fully clothed. "I see, we'll prove to each other who is the liar here. You aren't just a random night to me, Tony, but I have to be sure of your words. I hope you understand."

"Get out of my house."

Only when the door shut, Tony allowed himself cried over Steve, his stupid feelings, Ashatan, and sheer exhaustion, and maybe even the wish to sleep and not ever wake up. Curling himself on the bed, he cried until he smelled the burning coffee that he had to save from the fire. He burned his hand, and he cursed in every language and form that he remembered, kicking a cabinet and hurting his foot too. Inside, there were several new whiskey bottles. Naked and frustrated, Tony put a glass on the table and tossed it back in one shot.

Just a little, he lied to himself.

But when dawn filled his window with light, and the sunset followed after, the truth became clear: Tony had sat in one place, drinking all day, and was now very, very drunk. Coming back to the bed with Steve's smell was a bad idea and the genius wasn't sure if he should sleep. So, he reached for another bottle until his body felt cold for the night. Tony was very tired by the time his hand slipped and let the glass crash on the floor. He was crying again, the walls and ceiling twisted around him.

"ASHATAN! COME HERE YOU BASTARD!"

His only answer was the rain outside. Tony giggled between sobs, turning to the kettle. He put more coffee and watched the fire leave its black mark on the old steel, taking his mug to drink the dark liquid, moving sloppily in the apartment. He had forgotten his work. His feet protested and made him stumble on the sofa with his precious coffee staining the carpet. What time was it? Tony raised his head from the sofa to see the clock in the kitchen. A new day was already shining through the window. Maybe he passed out without noticing it, or maybe Ashatan was toying with his soul. Using the last reserve of his energy, Tony stood up to take a cold shower, made more coffee and walked out of his apartment. Once he put a foot outside in the corridor, he noticed a couple arguing in front of the elevator.

Tony squinted, wondering if he was still a little bit drunk, and his vision was fuzzy at the moment so it was natural to see other shadows being projected on the metal doors of the elevator and not the human ones. With a blink, Tony saw that the couple wasn't a normal pair. They were…

"Fish?"

Their faces were different, or that Tony swore before hit his head on a wall lamp when he tried to approach to see better. That young couple paused their fight to watch him, and suddenly they, and their shadows were normal again.

"Sorry… sorry…"

"Come on, darling, that man is drunk."

"Loser."

He decided to go back to his apartment, somehow, he felt afraid.

"Maybe a good glass of whiskey fixes everything," Tony spoke to no one, almost running to the cabinet and taking the bottle to the living room, "Just a little, I need… I need eat something. I think I saw chicken in the fridge."

He needed more than a little, another day passed and the genius was still drunk, but he refused to sleep. When someone banged on his door, Tony ran barefoot to the kitchen, where the last of his bottles waited. He forgot the broken glass, and one of the pieces nailed his left foot. Tony shouted and stumbled, bouncing painfully off the floor, and realizing, absurdly, that Steve had apparently forgotten one of his gloves; it was under the table. His one-night fuck would never return for a stupid glove.

The shadow behind the door left without a sound of footsteps but a hiss like a snake. Tony laughed and later cried; he couldn't bear any more. His eyes started to feel so heavy that he just laid there, murmuring Steve’s name as he slipped into unconsciousness.


	2. TWO

_“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”_  
― H.P. Lovecraft.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

***Earth***

Everything felt like a good dream where all the things were bright and warm, bringing to Tony a lovely sensation, almost like a cocoon protecting him from any harm. As he woke up, the pleasant feelings were replaced for a bad one, his fall on his workshop, the apparition of Ashatan and that unbelievable fuck with Steve Rogers which ended with him falling asleep on the floor after drinking too much and eating nothing, and not sleeping for at least three days. Tony slowly opened his eyes. His head hurt like hell and his body was limp, tired and not from the sex. He was laying down on a hospital bed, the smell of medicines, the white walls and the monitors very close to him beeping, confused him. Who took him to the hospital, and how? Friday? When Tony finally woke up and looked around, he found Janet Van Dyne sleeping on a chair.

"Jan?" The whisper seared his throat.

His friend jumped at his voice, shrieking a little before she ran to his side and covered his face with kisses. She seemed to be relieved.

"For God's sake, Tony! You scared us!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it…"

"You fool!" Jan pouted, crossing her arms, "You told me that you weren't drinking! Liar! You almost die of alcohol poisoning!"

Tony noticed something; he was in his original world where his name was famous. Tony decide that all those things were just a product of his intoxication while he was almost dying on his workshop's floor. It was a good explanation because his mind was always very inventive when hallucinations were involved, especially to punish himself over things like being lonely and missing a captain. Tony accepted that he was disappointed about those illusions, they were very good, very realistic and worthy of a horror novel. Janet's hand landed on his chest, caressing him a little to call his attention.

"Tony… you have to take better care of yourself. Another episode like this and you'll die, the doctors said it."

"Sorry for worrying you, Jan."

"Not just me, but Steve is also here."

"What?"

"I called him after Friday sent me a emergency message," She confessed, coughing, "I was so scared and he was my best option. After all, Steve has always been at your side when you needed him."

"Not always."

"Tony…"

"Okay, he was. But, Jan, why…?"

"Don't ‘Jan' on me, Tones. This is serious and I am not in the mood for jokes."

"Neither do I," Tony sighed, reaching out for a Jan's hand, "Thank you for saving me and thanks to Friday too."

"We're friends. Best friends."

"Tony!" Steve entered at the moment, exchanging a look with Jan, "I'm glad you're finally awake."

"I want a good cup of coffee, don't fight while I am out gentlemen," Jan said as she left the room.

Tony bit his lower lip, playing with the white sheet covering his body.

"Tony, what happened?"

"Are you serious with that question?"

"Yes."

"I… don't know."

"Please."

"Everything is wrong, okay? I don't feel precisely in the best mood to cheer up everybody including myself. You saw it, Steve, we… the team was broken."

"You know that I didn't blame you for that."

"Even what happened at the UN?" Tony looked up at Steve.

The captain shook his head, patting Tony's arm. "You explained what happened there and I believed you, don't you remember? All of that was because of Wanda's power. Now, if that…"

"Why is the staff so busy in the corridors? Is there something wrong outside?"

"Tony, no."

"Steve, come on."

"No. You barely made it, no."

"What happened?"

Steve narrowed his eyes, breathing deep. "Jesus Christ."

"I don't believe the son of God has something to do with this."

"No, he doesn't," The blonde laughed, "Something happened, like an electric storm during the night, but is not entirely a storm… or electric either."

"Elaborate, please."

"I just have the information from the news, okay? They said that an energy wave hit the planet, but no one around the world recorded any solar disturbances."

"An energy wave that altered all technological devices."

"Yes."

"And what, blinded the world for a couple of hours?"

"Yes?"

"Strange," Tony frowned, "Very strange, do you know if…?"

"You promised me not to get involved. You are a patient here and I want you to remain like that."

"What if…?"

"No, Tony, this time you have to rest and I'm going to watch you doing that."

Tony smiled, rolling back his eyes. When Captain America was on the charge, no one make him change his mind.

"Thank you for coming, Steve."

"I'd never leave you, Tony."

Tony could tell him about his beautiful and obscene dream, fucking with him just to make him run away, and let him investigate if the energy wave has to do something with Wanda Maximoff -or his terrible monster named Ashatan. But the warm hand over his own, that smile and just Steve’s was enough to set that thought aside and he smiled to the captain.

Janet came back after, and told them more rumors about the incident when Tony insisted. The wave was born in the exosphere, all the experts were saying different explanations, from global warming to alien signs from the end of the times.

Doctors appeared to check Tony who was obliged to listen to them about the dangers of alcoholism in front of Jan and Steve. That was embarrassing. Once the three were alone again, Janet said goodbye with a kiss on his cheek.

"Don't let him out of your sight, Steve."

"I won't, Jan. Take care."

"See you tomorrow!"

"She should be resting too," Tony complained, "After the battle with Wanda…"

"Tony, stop. We were the Avengers and we knew very well the cost of protecting our world."

"Okay, okay."

"Now, you have to sleep."

Tony tensed, anything but that. From the bottom of his heart he knew that if he fell asleep again, he would dream again those horrible fantasies and he didn’t want that.

"Tony?"

"I'm not sleepy."

"You seem tired."

"Nope. Steve, I'd like to be here almost twenty-four hours straight."

"The doctors said that you have to sleep."

"But I don't want it! Look, what if we play cards or something? And if I got tired then I'll sleep, uh?"

Steve seemed not very convinced but he accepted Tony’s offer. And Tony never fell asleep.

The dawn came with both men talking over breakfast about the weather, the latest protests against the mutants, and the good old days of the Avengers.

Janet appeared in time for lunchtime, bringing coffee for Tony and with some other news with the disapproval of Cap. They talked until Jan called Steve to say something that she didn’t wish Tony heard, but he suspected what was happening. He took the opportunity to move close enough to listen them.

"Doctor Strange called me last night, he wanted to show me something."

"Stephen?" Tony blinked, whispering.

"We will visit Strange,” Steve said, “And Tony will to stay here under supervision."

"Do you think he will stay?"

“We have to try, Jan.”

As a little child, Tony almost ran back to his bed and waited for them before Jan and Steve returned to the room.

“Tony, I need to ask you a favor.”

“Tell me, Steve.”

“I want you to remain here until we return from talk with the doctors.”

“Why…?”

"Do it for me?"

Tony couldn't say no and less with those pleading puppy eyes. His curiosity was stronger than his will to be healthy however.

He waited until nobody was watching him escape and then used a computer from a doctor's office to connect with Friday. He searched for every single word about the wave and the mutants, both things should have almost the same number of tags and online researches. In the room were a few bottles of vodka, whiskey, and rum, with thanks notes of patients. Tony watched them in silent fighting that compulsion to drink a little. Friday found videos about the wave when it hit the lower atmosphere and broke all the communications, leaving the world blinded for a couple of hours until the energy and satellites worked again. The funny thing was that the impact site was spotted in the Pacific Ocean, near Chile's coasts.

"There isn't any land there."

"Only the ocean, Boss. And an abyssal fracture."

"Darling, can you tell me where is Wanda Maximoff now?"

"I'm sorry since Magneto took her from Doctor Strange's protection, they disappeared."

"They can't disappear, they must be somewhere."

"I'll continue searching, Boss."

"Thank you, sweetie."

Tony stood up to leave but he turned around and caught one of the bottles, drinking from the top a little before left the whiskey in its place and ran to his room. He thought of something. If Wanda was causing the wave, probably she had caused his hallucination with that particular dream about Steve because she was able to read his mind. Not only his mind but the whole world, something to be worried about. Scarlet Witch was losing control of her powers but only Strange seemed to care about it.

Steve returned for the dinner, but didn't say a word about Strange, only that the wave seemed to have made the auroras more active than usual. They played cards again between jokes and more chattering until the captain got silent, looking straight at Tony.

"What?" He asked.

"Are you going to tell me the truth about why you needed t get that drunk again?"

"I already told you."

"You scratched the surface maybe, but you didn’t get to meat of it."

"Whoa, your metaphors amazed me."

"Tony."

Tony sighed, dropping his cards. "Okay, I felt alone and lost. Happy?"

"Why didn't you…?"

"Because you made clear that you didn't need me or any of us for that matter. You wanted to be on your own and I understand why, Steve. Jenny and… Clint, Scott… they shouldn't have die."

"Drink can't bring them back."

"At least I can forget them, forget that if I…"

"Stop."

"Steve, I started all."

"No."

"And Wanda took advantage of that. Why are you on her side?"

"She's one of us. An Avenger."

"There are no more Avengers."

"We'll be always Avengers, Tony. And Wanda needs our help."

"The wave probably was her fault, Steve."

"I don’t think you need this now, you..."

"And that's why I didn't call you!"

"I have to go."

"Fine."

"I'll come tomorrow. Sleep, Tony."

"Whatever."

Steve glanced back at Tony before he slammed the door. Tony huffed and turned to the window with a frown. He hated being there. Waiting until he thought Steve was gone, he left his bed and dressed ready to leave the hospital, the hell with the doctors and his treatments. And Cap’s supervision. He needed to see Stephen Strange and have a little talk with him about Wanda.

Tony took a taxi, using that time in traffic to think better. When he realized that they were stuck there, he paid attention what was happening outside the cab. Tony poked his head out to see an aurora borealis over New York. A scarlet one. Many of the passersby were taking photographs or talking about the unusual color, others started to whisper about mutants playing with their powers because there was no way that an aurora borealis appeared above the city by natural causes, that was a mutant, they said louder.

"I'll walk from here, thanks."

The door to the Sanctum Sanctorum opened by magic when Tony knocked, and the Doctor appeared in front of Tony as he stepped into the living room.

"I don't have the answers, Tony."

"You piece of shit, you have. This, Stephen, this is Wanda's fault."

"No."

"No? Excuse me? I think I heard wrong."

"You know who is causing this, the same entity who hurt you."

"Nobody…"

"The same who brought you to a place I cannot reach."

Tony trembled because he knew that Strange wasn't lying about that, the good doctor could be many things except that kind of liar.

"You… know?"

"Not as you might wish I did," Answered Strange, looking at him with a worried expression, "From my studies, I know there is something beyond all these powers we had met before, but this… revelation evaded me. You're the only one who can give answers."

"We're doomed," Tony smirked.

"Tony, be serious. What they did here is irreversible. I don't have any magic to heal you or help against the wave."

"Why you can't reach that place?" Tony frowned, "It's here."

"No, Tony, isn't here."

"What are you talking about? I saw it, Stephen, it's New York."

Strange shook his head. "Seems to be, but isn't. Is only your brain trying to process what cannot exist."

"So… where is that fucking world?"

"You know what I've already told you about the multiverse, microverse, and macroverse, about the dimensions inside and outside of our minds even if you don't believe in them. You were nowhere and everywhere at the same time, the realm of the impossible."

"I got lost."

"You didn't return alone." Strange pointed at the door.

"What?"

Tony whirled around, goosebumps rising up as he spots the black shadow writhing in the corners of the room.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Tony jumped back, his skin was suddenly cold with sweat, and his heart pounded wildly.

"In higher dimensions, it is called hound of Tindalos- a hunting dog from the darkness. You are its prey."

"You have to be fucking kidding me, Stephen."

"This is my first time seeing one of them. They live… in a Ghost World."

"Like one of your enemies?"

"Not that world, the real dream world, beyond the usual. A place that is unreachable for any living thing from this reality."

Tony started to consider in the possibility of being dead, and dreaming all of this. Or just maybe Ashatan did something to him that he wasn’t aware.

"Tell me that thing can't enter your sanctuary."

"It can't, barely. You are a lucky one," Stephen smiled at him and patted his right shoulder, "But I'm afraid that as soon you leave this building the hound will be back. You should think in why the hound chased you now and not after. Something or someone stopped it before. Come, you have to rest. The monster that caught you drained you quite badly."

While the Supreme Sorcerer offered him a beautiful revitalizing coffee with a spell of his own to recover his stolen energy, Tony was able to hear what Strange was trying to tell him before.

“I detected something when Wanda's powers began to destabilize,” Strange begun, “I felt something too dark and cold that was unrelated to entities that I knew for previous battles… and not.”

“There was a difference, right?”

“I’ve have seen many things that you couldn’t believe, and yet, something more terrible was revealed at the very moment when Scarlet Witch had broken the reality by fleeting seconds.”

“What was that?” Tony got the feeling that he knew the answer.

“A hidden power that awaited the opportunity to be reborn.”

That words were almost the same that Ashatan pronounced before. Tony gasped and trembled. He shook his head.

"Is Wanda fault."

"No, Tony."

"Listen, Stephen, I know you're fond of her, but you're letting that feeling cloud your reason."

"What was the affection that clouded your reason in the face of that monster?"

Tony winced, looking away. "Nothing you care about."

"This kind of power lives on the nightmares that come true, Tony. He's not an old rival or a being who was born before our universe wanting revenge like Galactus."

"I still don't understand what it could be."

"Once, I read about an astral traveler who had sought every possible corner of all realities. By mere accident, on his journey, he fell asleep and entered a place where he saw a door to another dimension. He just opened up a little bit to see and went blind, really blind. The traveler said that on the other side there were things that should not be awakened, things that could occasionally be seen on the dark side of the Moon when cats marched through the sky."

"Are you drunk, Stephen?"

"Tony."

"How can you fall asleep on an astral journey if according to your tales there is no need for that?"

"Do you want me to look for the traveler's soul to ask him?"

"No, I want you to tell me what's going to happen to me if I get out of here because Steve's going to get me and soon."

"Looks like that hound's just following you, but I wouldn't count on that. If only you believed in magic..."

"I think you drugged my coffee. I think so. And don't evade the Wanda subject, it's getting out of hand."

"You want it to be like this. You're hell-bent on blaming someone for the separation..."

"I'll risk a nightmare chasing me, thanks for the coffee and the stories, Stephen. By the way, when she loses control because we didn’t stop her, remember this: I told you."

Tony rose, angrier with himself than with the sorcerer himself who did not prevent him from leaving his sanctuary despite that spectral threat he was following and had not seen until that point. Tony borrowed an abandoned bicycle, a cap, and sunglasses with which to cover his face so he could walk through Central Park and calm his mind. Strange had troubled Tony by mentioning the separation of the team, the deaths of the Avengers and the Wanda's problem without forgetting, nevermind his business with Steve. Why couldn’t Strange tell you what to do? That mania of the sorcerer of talking in riddles that no one understands. The walk soothed Tony's heart, oppressed by the memory of what happened, looking for a bench to sit on for a while.

There was a good chance he was hallucinating everything. That's why Strange had spoken to him that way, to "wake" him from that hallucination. It was something the sorcerer was very good at. It could be that Tony was still in his workshop lying on the floor under an overdose of whiskey, muttering his ravings to Friday and the Bots. Tony didn't want to dismiss that possibility while figuring out what could happen to him if he didn't give in to Ashatan’s offer, considering it to be real just like the feeling of his ghostly dog. Tony glanced out through the trees with his hands tucked into his hoodie, noticing the wind blowing through the park, rioting the bushes and treetops.

There weren't many people, because of the hour. It was past the evening. Tony smiled reminding himself that it was too late and if there was a hunter dog behind him, it would certainly be a thief because they preferred the night to commit their crimes. At least that's what he knew how to fight a thief. Unfortunately for Tony, there was no criminal slam nearby who would notice him and want to steal his underpants because he didn't bring anything jazzy with him. The wind blew again, running through the trees like a snake. Tony turned his attention to that, tense now because he realized there was no other sound around. The birds and small animals of the park had stilled. He laughed nervously, looking at the semi-cloudy sky before leaping from the bench and sprinting away, driven by that slight terror that was gaining ground in his mind.

He made a pause, regretting the run, maybe stay in the hospital was a good idea after all. Tony looked around, a little dizzy with a hand on a wall for support. How a city so busy could appear so empty? He didn’t know, gasping for air. A stranger approached to ask him if he was ok, Tony only dismissed him waving his hand, he continued walking to his home. Returning to the tower he calmed him, surprising his employees and strangers who tried to ask him something, shutting up all those distressed voices with a gesture as the elevator took him back to his workshop.

“Welcome back, Sir.”

“Thank you, Fri, and thank you for saving me… again, I suppose.”

“Always, Boss.”

“Can you do me a favor? Give a Steve this message: Hi, I know you’re mad at me for leaving the hospital but I’m fine. If you want to yell me I’ll be in my workshop.”

“Sending message.”

“Do the same to Rhodey and Jan, please.”

He noticed that his friends had cleaned his workshop; things had been moved, thrown away, and the floor stank of disinfectant now. It was terrible. Tony sighed, taking off his cap and goggles that he changed for protective ones, reaching for some gloves and turning on the music. Working on his armor was the best therapy.

"Chief, do you want to know the news?"

"If it's something worth my time, yes."

"There was a massive animal emigration in South America, wildlife of all sorts is moving inland from the Western coast, for reasons unknown."

"What are they running from? What do our satellites say?"

"Something in the ocean, it seems."

"Do you have a common point?"

"Yes... Boss, you should see this before."

Friday showed on a holographic screen the image of Steve entering the tower with a livid face. That the captain was upset wasn't what disturbed Tony, it was seeing once again that shadow of something like a hunting dog following in Steve’s footsteps. Tony summoned his armor without a second thought, and rushed to Steve’s location quick as he could go. Steve was about to shout until he saw that hound with his own eyes. Tony recognized that figure; it was the same one he had seen with Ashatan, those dogs whose touch had turned the falling people to ash.

Tony flew out of building, terrified, thinking of where he could hide Steve, how he could catch and contain the Hound, and whether he could get Strange to his side in time to help.

“TONY! TONY, FOR GOD’S SAKE! PLEASE, TONY!” Steve shouted in fear.

Tony felt a drop of sweat rolling down on his forehead, his heart racing as he flew past the buildings with the captain's fists hitting his armor to pay attention to him.

"Tony! You're having a heart attack!"

Tony blinked at the intense glow of light over his eyes. He was on the cold floor touching his naked butt on the tiles through the gap in his hospital gown. He had never left the room, unless it had all been a dream. Had it been a dream? Nurses and doctors were kneeling next to him with resuscitation equipment while Steve tenderly held his head, trying to get Tony to focus his attention on him, but Tony couldn't.

In a corner of that corridor, not far from them, perched against the ninety-degree angle that formed the walls, was Tindalo's hound watching him. Tony swore that when his eyes met the dog's, it smiled at him, showing all that row of sharp teeth impossible to keep or move like that in such a deformed snout.

"TONY! TOOONY!"

"Get him on the gurney! Nurse, get the crash cart ready!”

Tony suddenly remembered that when he left his room, just as he reached the elevator, the hound had suddenly appeared, biting him from a hand he raised at the time, noticing the reddish dots left on his skin before the reactor in his chest turned off.

"Discharge!"

He dropped his head, looking at the captain who shook his head, almost about to cry. Tony wanted so badly to kiss him just then, and would have laughed at the thought because he’d begun to feel very light, and very, very sleepy...

Tony opened his eyes, with the third discharge. He couldn't sleep, if that hound lived in the Ghost World, he would be doomed. Whether it was a hallucination or not, what Strange had told him seemed to be very true: those things lived in the world beyond dreams, where darkness sleeps waiting for his next victim to fall. He had seen them.

***Hell***

Tony flinched, opening his eyes.

He was in his hospital bed, a deserted one.

The walls and the ceilings were dirty and old, in the same look when the woke up in his workshop the day he met Ashatan. The same smell, the same air, the same evening, the same whisper. He breathed hard. His heart was beating fast while he stood up and walked out to the lonely and dark corridor with the wind howling between the broken windows. His naked feet started to feel cold as his ass with that stupid hospital gown, but there was no sign of any clothes to use. Tony looked around trembling, not very sure if it was for the cold breeze or the fear of being once more in that dream, in that apocalyptic world.

He took the stairs, making pauses when he heard noises of growls and scratches of claws on the walls. It was a long walk before he got out of the hospital and watched again the same scenario, the dying sun with eyes in the cloudy sky following his steps.

Little piece by little piece, that world was being consumed by the dying sun while those monster eyes watched it. Tony coughed, the air was dense and hard to breathe. He walked slowly because his feet were stable, the ground below them moved in a small earthquake, breaking the pavement in every movement. Tony felt terrified, helpless and lost. He knew he didn't fall sleep in the hospital, he knew it. A cracking sound was heard before Ashatan appeared crawling in a corner of the building next to the hospital, moving his tails in the air like a dog happy to see its owner. The monster descended when it spotted Tony, jumping in front of him, showing fangs and claws with its back to the dying sun.

"We meet again."

_Again? It isn't an again, we're still here._

"You showed me another world, so I traveled to it, right?"

_Travel?_

"Okay, we'll that subject for later. Why all this, Ashatan? Were you Wanda Maximoff in the past?"

Ashatan laughed, amused. _Poor mortal thing, I am not that mutant_.

"You know the mutants."

_I know many things_.

"Why do you want to destroy me?"

_You're destroying yourself; you don't need me for that_.

"I'll tell Steve about you; I don't care if he won't believe me or not. You won't win."

_A win is for the mortals_.

"Who is helping you?"

_You_.

"Me? I would never help you, you fucking monster."

_Monster?_ Ashatan looked itself, _You are the monster, then_.

"Strange will stop you, my friends will stop you. This isn't over."

_Do you like what do you see in the other world? Taste the happiness you'll never have?_

"I'm happy in my way, thanks."

_Drowning yourself in alcohol_.

"If your new trick is trying to make me feel guilty, there is a long line for that, honey."

Ashatan hit the cracking ground with all its tails, without take apart his monster eyes from Tony who resisted looked away from them.

_Even in the worst scenarios, you maintained your position_.

"Look, Ashatan, this game is boring. If you want to surprise me, you'll have to show me your best."

The monster tilted its head as if Ashatan was thinking if Tony's death was something affordable. Suddenly, the monster extended his arms and everything stopped like frozen, nothing moved and from the sky a fracture was visible, like a paper tearing apart. Tony fell into the abyss, instead of flying on it, rolling in fast circles while the universe around crunched itself. He even forgot that his ass was showing in front of the whole stars, something insignificant when Tony was witnessing the beginning of the life as scientists, poets, philosophers, and others tried to explain and see. Tony floated in the middle of the darkness, with Ashatan as the only living thing at his side, if the name could fit at the monster who raised a claw to show him something.

Before the light, was the darkness, the real darkness.

Ashatan pointed in front of them, Tony didn't see something but then, he shouted in a long, terrified but muted scream. Hundreds of eyes of several sizes opened right in front of both of them, that black universe showed a geometrical form, an impossible form twisting and changing in another gigantic old god. Tony wished not had been asked such a petition, feeling his eyes burned and his body shivered in cold. Those eyes and those tentacles made him nauseous, every muscle, skin, and his brain were tortured by the vision. Ashatan smiled, floating at his side. The monster was felt proud of its master, talking to Tony about them, about their origin.

_Many great and ancient civilizations studied the space and time to find where everything started. Once an idea was told and told in endless times, it evolved into unquestionable truth. That happened in the multiverse when the first records about the origin of life said that powerful gods gave their lives to create the multiverse and later their descendants or creations began to give it a form. But the truth was darker and not so bright. There was darkness and this darkness had conscious, molding its thoughts into Great Old Ones that tore and ate and crushed this darkness until they were satisfied with their chaos and destruction before got bored and decided to sleep for a while until their dreams acquired enough power to came alive and started over again the wheel of chaos._

_They invented in those dreams creatures that will keep their destructive essence safe once the Great Old Ones slept and forgot how to wake up. That was the beginning of the known multiverse. Those immortal creatures survive their master and flew through the multiverse until the Living Tribunal captured them. No one was capable to kill them because they were made of the same power that created the multiverse, but they tried to domesticate them and made them some type of ambassadors of their will. It worked in the beginning… but later these creatures -called Minister of Justice for the Living Tribunal- shown their true nature. They had hunted and erased from those cursed memories. Some of the Minister got crazy, wondering as shadows of the original and chaotic multiverse. But a few of the Minister of Justice waited long enough to complete the will of the Great Old Ones, their true masters._

_Because that is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die_. Finished Ashatan, laughing.

Tony landed violently against the broken slug with no time to defend himself from the fall. His bones and muscles never resented him, as if he had fallen into a sponge instead of the hard-concrete shattering. The gravitational force of the sun slowly drawing every piece of the planet into its increasingly dark center with those eyes in the sky watching everything. He wondered how much more he could hallucinate in the presence of the monster which floated over him before sticking his tails in the concrete and hanging as it did before, looking at him with amusement or perhaps compassion. Tony couldn't be sure of it, coughing up some of the rarefied air flavored with metal and blood that snuck through his lungs as he took a deep breath after crashing like that, shaking his battered hospital gown.

"You did it, you scared me. Now I know you're a real Minister of Justice, happy?"

_You live scared, I haven't accomplished anything with you._

"What was the purpose of showing me the origin of your masters?"

_Introduce you to them_.

Tony was sure he was going to go crazy from one moment to the next, taking a hand to his head when a stabbing pain attacked his temples at the same time that in the sky appeared among the hundreds of eyes other forms that he couldn't understand. His brain seemed to get stuck with the vision of those Great Old Ones moving in time and space in an impossible way. Tony raised a hand to his face when he felt something damp running down his cheeks. Tears of blood, caused by the pressure to see those monstrosities of a size that Tony swore were larger than the entire solar system. He fell to his knees, unable to resist seeing these dark entities anymore, watching them was the same as wanting to fry his brains. He heard Ashatan's laughter near him, his tails moving with a hiss.

_No mortal resists the vision of the Great Old Ones_.

"Thank you for telling me in advance."

_Tell me, human, do you think you can change the luck that has already been thrown eons before time?_

Tony raised his face. "What do you mean?"

_I've shown you a world where I took off the weight that haunts you all the time. In that world, you got what you've wanted so much, even if you don't accept it. It's a version of you, like others existing at the same time around this reality._

"This reality sucks, if I may comment. Just like you. You want to ask me to join you, to be a Minister of Justice, right?"

_I'm not going to ask you for anything, Tony. You'll do it._

"I won't."

_What if I show you why you'll do it?_

"Ah, you display your intentions at last."

_The fate of this universe is already decided. Lies are of no use to my masters who know everything because they saw it before in their dreams. Your Living Tribunal has lied, always has. Just like humans who lived on this planet_.

"Tell me, Ashatan, if we are so inferior before your eyes, what is the interest in me?"

_I don't need to tell you the answer, you know_.

"No, I don't know. And I'm tired of this fucking game!"

_The death of this universe will begin soon, the disease that attacked time ago has infected it enough to kill_.

"Sickness?"

The monster did not respond to Tony, instead, it lifted his claws into the sky that broke into wedges, showing different realities, different moments as if they were seeing them through gigantic mirrors. Tony frowned, noticing some of the places that his memory recognized for having visited them before. Planets, cities, spaceships... everything was shattered. Those different visions came together in one, a dying universe where friends were enemies, the good was bad, and everyone sought to kill each other to survive. Tony turned to look at Ashatan, the monster nodded, wielding with a gesture from his hand that future. Tony could not tell how he knew it, but he was sure it was the future.

"Why?"

_First of all, for what you have done to the universe. Youve played too much with the strings, and you’ll end up break it sooner or later. You know what I mean._

Mutants. He said to himself Tony silently, clenching his fists.

"The Ministers of Justice are gone, didn't they? As time passed and your gods continued to sleep, they ran out of the fuel that life provided them, less if the Living Tribunal modified their essences to tame them."

_It's true_.

"What you're doing now is revenge."

_I am justice, not vengeance_.

"For this case, I think it's the same."

Ashatan approached to him, almost rubbing Tony's nose with his snout. _You still cling to protect your world even it despises you, even it doesn't deserve to be saved. Humans are evil by nature; they hide their evil intentions by saying they bring justice for all. They prefer death over life, they prefer to trample on the other rather than accept their differences, they prefer to extinguish other living things than to give up in their commodities. They pretend that they seek the welfare of all, especially the most unprotected, but they only want to satisfy their egos by disguising themselves as saviors of false causes. In the end, they only care about themselves and that's why they destroy everything they touch_.

"Good speech, did your masters write it for you?"

_You've asked me before if this is your future, it is, but it's not my masters who left this planet as you see it now. It was you. All of you_.

"That's why they fear us, we can destroy your Great Old Ones."

_Your pride is despicable_.

"Like your attempt to impersonate an omnipotent entity that has seen the future. You're not fooling me, Ashatan, you were human once."

_And who was I, according to you?_

Tony was silent, thinking about it carefully. First, he thought it was Wanda Maximoff, but now he wasn't sure. Maybe, Jean Grey, the idea was too vague. It must have been someone who had lost something important, so much so that finished to surrender at the vengeance to the point of serving monsters which were said to be the real creators of the multiverse. Who had been Ashatan before becoming a skinless horrifying thing, with the muscles discovered and bones that appeared to be his armor and support? And another thought came to Tony, what had it lost? If I could find what Ashatan would have lost because of the Avengers - or the mutants - all those nightmares would be over.

"Let me see once again that dying universe if you're so kind. I'll get your answer after that."

_No, you won't_.

Tony was shocked by the monster's confidence to claim what was a random event, but he didn't stop to antagonize it. He turned to look again at that sky that fragmented and pay attention to all the details presented to him. It was funny that I didn't see anything of him in that hopeless future, as if he didn't exist. That was his first clue to start thinking about the possible answer to giving Ashatan once the vision was over, and he would be left with a new headache. Perhaps was the metal taste in the air, the apocalyptic scenario, the sun like a big eye or mouth swallowing everything or that his body was beginning to complain about being covered only with that poor hospital gown.

"I still can't give you an answer, Ashatan."

_Instead, I have given you enough answers to understand_.

"I'm not a Minister of Justice, I'm a mortal human being. I'm slower."

_Maybe if you close your eyes you can embrace the truth_.

"I'm not a fan of being blind."

_Or being alive_.

Tony huffed. "I still don't understand why you haven't killed me yet."

_They will._

"Your masters?"

_Your head is hard like these rocks, maybe if I break it the truth will enter in it_.

Tony knew what Ashatan meant, jumping away from the monster and ran until he found a spot to hide. He found it just right behind a column and only a few seconds to look around and use his surroundings to his favor. Ashatan growled, his tails broke the concrete floor every time it sank them, his jaws showed sharp fangs. Tony took a few rocks as missiles to throw at the monster when it was steps from him, but that Minister Of Justice only cut them all in the air with its claws, roaring. He ran again, and this time pushed a column over Ashatan. Every time he made a move, the monster was prepared for it like if his depredator could read his thoughts or have seen him fight before.

"Fucking dammit!"

The worst part was that Tony started to feel tired, thirsty, and hungry when he returned to the point where they fought first. He was sure that he reached New York borders because he always ran in a straight line and the distances in his mind where long enough to be outside the city. But when Ashatan punched or thrown him against the floor, he was in the start point once more. With this dynamic, Tony also realized that hours passed. Maybe days if the monster had the ability to twist the time. He recognized very well when his body needed food or water after days working on his workshop without rest. Ashatan was only following him, never capturing Tony in a twisted game.

_Sleep_.

Tony fell on his knees gasping for air. He couldn't run anymore, gazing the monster crawling towards him with those tails in the air like needles searching for his flesh. Why Ashatan returned them on that spot instead of letting him saw the rest of the world? Tony frowned, breathing hard and turning his head. Something was going on in that place, something was controlling the illusion of the dying sun and the rest. If he…

"NO!" His body didn't respond to him anymore, laying on his left side, "Please, no, I understand, here there is something important that I need to…"

_Sleep_. Ashatan tilted its head when it reached the human on the ground. _Sleep_.

"N-No…"

_Sleep_.

"… p-please…" Tony trembled and his eyelids felt so heavy, like tons of lead.

_Sleep_.

Tony did.

***Paradise***

When Tony opened his eyes, he knew immediately that everything had changed, and solemnly promised himself that he would never fall asleep again. The reason abandoned him every time he closed his eyes. That could never happen again or Ashatan would win. Now he was inside a room neither very small nor very large, completely padded with small lamps attached to the ceiling that illuminated every corner without leaving any corner in the dark. The detail that scared Tony was finding himself held by a straitjacket just like the insane people in the asylums. Wearing a hospital pajama pants, barefoot and the taste of a sedative in his mouth, Tony didn’t doubt that he was in an isolation cell.

"Damn."

Tony's whole body hurt from the beating that the monster had given on him, but being in that cell he knew that his wounds weren't going to be caused by Ashatan. The real reasons started to worry him as he spent his time being awake and nobody appeared in the room to check him. Tony shook on the floor where he was, his back resting against one of the padded walls, trying to test whether the straitjacket was tied tight enough to break free. He cursed again by seeing that he couldn't escape from there, he was weak and disoriented. Tony was thirsty, so thirsty as well as tiredness. He took air so he screamed with all his might, he needed it because he felt like he was going crazy.

While Tony's vocal cords made their best effort in that scream, he wondered how much of this was a hallucination and that so much was real. Why did every time he fall asleep, those worlds change? Was it some kind of trap of his subconscious or was someone else playing a pretty heavy joke with his mind? Was Strange causing all those hallucinations that hurt so much? Wanda? Tony carried enough sins with him to suffer such torture, all he longed for at the time was for someone to tell him it was his punishment for being a monster. The door of his cell slid, opening enough to let his friend Rhodey coming through.

"Rhodey…"

"Tones, why?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, please. Tell me what I did."

"Who are you?"

"What?"

"You're not my friend, my shy, but a brilliant friend would never attack the labs that way."

"If only I knew what do you mean by that."

"Are you a Skrull, a Kree or is any other race trying to invade us?"

Tony laughed. "Oh, my gosh, please don't."

"I don't want to hurt you, you've done it for yourself, wanting to destroy my prototypes."

"Rhodey, I swear on my life that it's not worth much right now, I don't know what you're talking about. Please, tell me."

Rhodey looked at him silently for a few seconds and then called Jocasta, which displayed a holographic screen between them. Tony could see himself entering the engineering department in the middle of the morning to begin breaking all things at his reach with a heavy tool, a drill and even a half-built robotic arm that whipped against the glass which guarded the armors designed for Captain America. Among all those attempts to end the efforts of several engineers besides his friend, is that he ended up hurting himself when one of the prototypes burst against his face, and Tony finished crashing into some table and all that frenzy stopped when a blow to his head by the rebound of a metal piece knocked him unconscious, leaving behind the disaster caused by his moment of anger.

"Oh, wow..."

"What are you?"

Tony raised his face at his friend from other universe, first smiling at him and then breaking into tears. He couldn't hold any longer. The alcohol finally reached a point of no return. He was going to go crazy, maybe he was dying. He didn't know what was going on with himself, and that pushed him down. Rhodey seemed to receive the call from someone else because he walked away, looking at him compassionately before disappearing in the aisle, being replaced by Captain Rogers, who entered at his steady pace, in his Avenger's uniform and shield on his arm as usual. Tony sworn that if the great hero of the USA was going to break his neck with that heavy shield, perhaps it was the best. If he died in his dream, did he really die? Tony's tears turned to hiccups, staring at the blonde's polished boots instead of his face.

"Tony," The captain called him, "Look at me."

Tony did so, seeing that hard face between his eyes clouded by tears. He swallowed hard, trying to breathe.

"If you're going to kill me, do it now, please."

"Why do you think I will?"

"You want to know who I am? I'm Tony. Tony. I think I'm a genius, a millionaire, an Avenger named Ironman... who is hopelessly in love with you. "

"Tony," Steve’s voice hardened.

"Every time I fall asleep, I wake up in a different world. But I know... that I've been drinking a lot and that guilt for what happened with the Avengers has been too much. I don't know if this is all a hallucination of mine or I've met a monster that's playing with my sanity, transforming my world into others... and the only thing that keeps me on the surface is you."

Steve beckoned to someone outside to cut the audio, kneeling in front of Tony. Cap took his chin to make him look straight in his eyes.

"Is that your truth?"

"You know? I wouldn't mind if you killed me. It would be great, I wouldn't let anyone hurt me, except you" Tony smiled a little bit, "I love you. I know you're not in love with me, it's okay. But I can't stand this anymore, I want it to stop. Make it stop, Steve."

"Tony…" Steve gripped his right shoulder, "I don't hate you. What happened last night was something I desire, If I told you something that could hurt you enough to make you crazy, I'm deeply sorry, but I want you to speak with the truth."

"This is true. My truth. But here…" Tony looked around with new tears. Has Steve just said _last night_? Time was twisting. "I'm so tired…"

"Maybe if we put you in bed…"

"No! No more beds! No more dreams!"

"Calm down."

"Why do you fuck me? For compassion?"

"No."

"Then?"

The captain held his breath and relaxed. "You seemed so brave and determinate; besides you saved my life with that shout. You stunned me. And I like that."

"You… admire me?"

"Something more like that. Listen, Tony. If this is a play…"

"No, no, no, stop that," Tony moved a little, whispering, "I need to say it, okay? Even if this is my hallucination, I need it. I love you, Steve. You had been everything to me since I knew about you when I was a little boy. I'm sorry for being an asshole, alcoholic and selfish bastard, you always trusted in me and I failed you when Jenny and died. I couldn't anticipate Wanda's manipulations, and we lost friends and Avengers… I'm sorry, so sorry…"

Right at that moment, everything trembled. Steve ducked in reflex act as he felt the floor moved under his feet, his shield protecting him and Tony, who blinked at the lights of his cell flashing for a few seconds. The walls as the ceiling begun to change just as if suddenly that world was to become yet more like Ashatan’s. The coppery color of the walls and that burning aroma appeared for a few brief moments before they disappeared with a second replica of the tremor. The lights went out completely, activating the red emergency lights with a siren in the distance. Captain America went up with a frown and his clenched fists, waiting for an attack that didn't come, the next the lights returned to normal.

Tony was going to ask Steve, but he turned around to get out, meeting Rhodey who was already going to find him. They talked with the open door, allowing Tony to hear.

"What was that, Rhodey?"

"A disturbance."

"Do we have its origin?"

Rhodes' face was tensed. "Genosha."

"The mutants, why now?"

"The meeting with the United Nations, Steve."

"Are they going to do the same thing as before?" The captain growled.

"I sent an encrypted message to Genosha, but they haven't answered it. Disruption grows exponentially, Cap, next time our reality may be altered."

"What would they gain from that?"

"A world without normal humans?"

"At the cost of murdering us?"

"I wish I had the answers, if only they answered the message."

"They won't, this has already been with all intent and they won't stop. Any ideas?"

"We have to be with the representatives at the United Nations, but now that this has happened..." Rhodes looked at Tony, "Steve, I need him, he's the only one with the brilliant mind to work with Jocasta about Genosha while we're there."

"Do you trust him, my friend?"

"This I will say will be most logical, but... deep down in my heart I know it's Tony, but he's not the Tony I grew up with. He's not a Skrull or a mutant. He's my Tony, and at the same time, he isn’t. Being him and not an impostor is enough to entrust him with what we've found."

Steve meditated it for a few seconds. "All right, we'll do it your way. I'll take him with Jocasta and then you and I will travel to the United Nations."

"Tell him about the mutants, Steve, I don't think he has any idea what we're dealing with."

"Thanks for the advice, Rhodey."

"I'll go to calm the rest of the people, good luck."

"I wish you the same."

Tony was waiting patiently looking around and not moving inside his cell until the captain appeared with another expression on the face different from what he had the first time he entered. Without telling him anything, he simply broke his moorings and lifted him by an elbow making the sign that he had to follow him. The severity with he moved was a sign for Tony, he didn’t ask what was disturbing him. He shredded his shirt in a trash can, moving with Steve to a room where he took sports clothes to wear, and go behind Cap until an armored car labeled with Labs Rhodes International on the side. The others were all too busy calming patients, administrative staff and doctors to even stop Tony for leaving.

"I'll drive," Steve said, taking the wheel.

"Okay…"

There was traffic in the streets, people were outside, a lot of them hysterical about what happened, it had not only been the tremor but also that change worthy of a horror movie. Both men saw through the public screens what were lost when they were inside, not only had it been a terrifying appearance on walls and ceilings, but also the sky had changed to a coppery orange with a squeal resonating throughout the city. This phenomenon had only been in New York, but in the rest of the world, they had recorded what happened and was world news by the time they reached the Rhodes Labs International tower. Steve stopped the car before entering the parking lot, turning to Tony.

"Steve?"

"If you betray me, I swear I'll kill you. I mean it."

"I don't plan on doing that."

"You saved my life, I won't forget that. But... there's something you need to know."

"Are you married?" Tony joked, staying as serious as the captain.

"Don't you think it's strange that I'm just the only Avenger in this country?"

"Mmmm, what about Rhodey?"

"He is, but not full-time, and it's better for the case. That saved him."

"Save him from what?" Tony frowned, "Why are there no more Avengers?"

"The mutants murdered them."

Tony opened his eyes wide without believing it, dropped his jaw, making a fish mouth as he looked at Steve, who nodded to his silent question.

"That's right, Tony. Rhodey was the first to detect a mutant. At first, we thought they were an experiment, or a natural evolutionary leap. Until one of them was caught murdering a girl, a young heroine who had begun his journey as an Avenger."

"Did you know her?"

Steve nodded. "I didn't give up the idea that it was all a misunderstanding, someone else's plot to blame mutant newcomers. Too late I realized I was wrong. They had already hunted down every possible Avenger, eliminating it before SHIELD could find them and recruit them."

"B-But... why would mutants want to disappear all superheroes?"

"Rhodey and I concluded: they kill them all so no one who could stop them."

"What?"

"What happened before comes from Genosha, the city where they fled and that no one can go through without lost life. What you're going to look at is top secret, Tony. If anyone else finds out, it'll all turn a hell, follow me."

They got out of the car, among the ranks of people who refused to return to their jobs or homes, fearful that vision would appear again with another tremor. Tony was stunned, in his world there were mutants with bad intentions, but in general, they were open to dialogue. Not to mention that a couple of them had been Avengers. Why were they worse than the Skrulls here? With all the fuss around him, they entered the parking lot, taking another path to Rhodey's elevator. Steve pulled out a micro card that he inserted into the elevator board when the doors closed, causing them to come down instead of climbing.

"Oh... This is..."

"We will go with Jocasta."

The elevator lights swirled, descending at a speed that Tony's speedy mind calculated was to descend at least a mile down earth. His gaze crossed Steve's, the blonde's eyes softened his expression, taking air before reaching one of his hands he squeezed.

"I don't use people. I'm not like that. I'm sorry if I made you feel bad."

"Okay, now I understand why you reacted like this."

The captain barely turned, approaching Tony. "The mutants have tried to kill Rhodey, as me as well. More times than I could count since I woke up from the ice. We're the only team stopping them from sweeping with the rest of the humans."

"Did they become so bad?"

"They were always evil, Tony."

With the buzzy sound of the elevator moving down, Tony remained silent the rest of the way, making calculus and trying to understand the mutant's reasons to be like that. Maybe in his world, they could disagree, but they never tried to sweep the normal people as they were doing.

"Tony," Called Steve.

"Uh?"

An apology kiss landed on his temple. "Forgive me. I hurt you."

"It's okay."

"I don't like it. Maybe you're another victim of them."

Tony wished to reply to that and told him about Ashatan when the elevator doors opened for them on the lowest floor of Rhodey's tower. It was like a second version of his workshop, only that a column in the middle full of holograms and monitors occupied a good space of the place. But that wasn't the detail that made Tony gasp in surprise. Jocasta was there, smiling at him with this titanium steel body shinning thanks to the dim lights around.

"Welcome, Captain America. Engineer Anthony Edward Stark. Tony."

"Jocasta, Tony will help you with Genosha. I have to go and stay in the UN with Rhodey."

"I understand, Captain. Come, Mr. Stark."

"H-Hi…"

"Don't waste time," Cap whispered at Tony, "We depend on you."

"I won't fail you, Steve."

"Take care, Tony. Mutants are very powerful."

Captain America disappeared and Tony turned around to see the robot.

"It's good to see you."

"Why is it good to see me if you had never met me before?"

"Long story. Tell me about Genosha."

"They covered with an energy shield, it cuts every attempt to communicate with them and protect the mutant country from any weapon."

"How the mutants could manage such technology?"

Jocasta looked at him, confused. "Don´t you know?"

"Don't you hear the news? I was in a psychiatric hospital hours ago."

The robot giggled, pointed at one hologram. "There."

If Tony thought in a joke to tell Jocasta, it died on his lips when he saw something that was just impossible in every scientist's discipline. Genosha was covered by a solar energy shield, an energy that was coming straight from the sun. Rhodes Labs International was monitoring the star from the first attack, and the satellites capture a worrying image: the sun had a fracture, causing a solar storm in which radiation flew in a straight line to Genosha.

"What the fuck…?"

"A mutant is pulling the energy from the sun."

"It's a suggestion or a fact?"

"A fact," Jocasta showed Tony a photograph of Jean Grey, "She is the mutant. But she isn't the dangerous one."

"Oh, sucking the sun isn't a danger?"

"No, is the mutant who fractured the sun."

Tony closed his eyes when the robot showed another picture, he didn't want to see it because he already knew who was the other mutant capable to destroy the entire solar system, the entire universe if she wanted.

"Please, no."

"Wanda Maximoff," Jocasta whispered.

"This… isn't making any sense. If they… of course, if she could rip the sun, she could put it back together once the rest of the humans were destroyed."

"A solar whip thick as a human hair is enough to erase an entire continent."

"We have to stop them."

"Mr. Rhodes told me that, but we didn't achieve anything."

"Wanda was in Genosha before this started?"

"No, she was in another place."

"Where?"

Jocasta remained in silence a few seconds, turning to Tony with a finger pointing at the ceiling.

"In this tower."

Tony tensed. "Jocasta, show me the position of the Earth when she was here and now."

"Mutants always observed hostile behavior, but they only attacked when they felt threatened. Their conduct changed months ago when Wanda Maximoff was brought to Rhodes Tower to help her with his condition."

"Condition?" Tony frowned, waiting for the screens with the information.

"She suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, she believes that her world isn't the real and everybody was an enemy, including their kind."

"Jesus…"

"I have the data."

Ashatan brought Wanda from his world into this? Tony couldn't be sure. Now he had to think in a containment plan or Genosha will erase the rest of the humans with Scarlet Witch feeling lost. As he suspected, the fracture in the sun occurred when Wanda was in the tower… and when Tony saw for the first time Ashatan. Impossible. Time didn't fit, Tony told himself. A red alarm lighted on because the sun's energy moved in a spiral towards one direction: the UN building where world leaders were gathered to decide Genosha fate.

"It's moving too fast!"

Tony breathed deep, licking his lips. "Jocasta, can you lend me one Rhodey's armor?"

"Do you know how it works?"

"Yes. Please, they are in danger. I have to go but I'll tell you what to do in the way, okay?"

"Be safe, Tony."

Safety was the last priority in Tony's mind. How defeat a powerful mutant capable to crash the reality with a single desire on her mind? Tony thought in his encounter with Ashatan. Maybe, and just maybe, she was Wanda in the future. The monster could lie to him in purpose to distract him from his real identity. She could make contact with the Great Old Ones and became a Minister of Justice. Her Justice. While he was thinking about that, Tony send Jocasta his plan.

"_The Arc Reactor isn't strong enough to repel a sun cannon, Tony."_

"I know but I don't plan cut it. I want to use it."

_"How?"_

"Better you don't ask, Jocasta. Did you send the alarm?"

_"Captain Rogers and Mr. Rhodes already knew, they are moving the leaders but the solar spiral is almost there, as you, Tony."_

"When I told you, send all the energy of the armor to the Arc Reactor."

_"Tony…"_

"Just do it, Jocasta!"

Tony's idea was very simple and risky, he flew fast to the UN. The solar spiral was cutting the sea and reaching the beach.

"Now, Jocasta!"

Controls and weapons lost their energy when the armor floated in the air with the Arc Reactor shooting straight to the solar spiral. Tony was ready with manual control that he activated when the spiral attacked like a whip. He closed his eyes and later he opened them again when the Arc Reactor started to absorb the spiral like a vacuum cleaner with the control on his hand. The armor shattered, losing altitude and the ground seemed closer than before.

_"Tony!"_

"IT'S O-OKAY!"

Tony clenched his teeth, inside the armor was a hell by the heat condensing.

"SHOOT!"

The Arc Reactor sent a blast of solar energy outside the atmosphere into space while the armor recovered his functions enough to crash in the gardens of the UN and not die in the way. Rhodey flew to Tony who removed the helmet, breathing hard, and sopping. At least, they saved for a day or two innocent people. Tony smiled, closing his eyes with the sound of sirens and ambulances around. In the distance, he heard Steve's voice commanding the UN forces to clear the area, like in his world. A scream made Tony opened his eyes, Rhodey was about to help him when they saw something landed, appearing from nothing with a sharp howl. It sounded like a dolphin or an echo sounder but hundreds of times more powerful, it hurt everybody's ears.

Whatever it was, has black skin and one long tentacle that shines through its suckers and moved like a whip. The monster was taller than the UN building and covered the sky, darkening the land. Tony felt his skin bristled, moving aside Rhodey who shouted at him when he saw his friend flew again to reach Captain America who was in the middle of the tentacle and the ground. A giant claw captured Tony and threw him to the sea. Tony screamed with all his will while he was flying to the sea, the monster hit Steve with violence, cracking all the area and taking away the only Avenger who could protect the world against the mutants.

"STEVEEEEEEEEEE!"


	3. THREE

“_The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind_.”

― H. P. Lovecraft

* * *

**Chapter Three**

***Earth***

"Steve!"

Tony's cry echoed the whole workshop, like a hollow howl that returned to the ears of the millionaire lying on the ground trembling from head to toe with wide eyes full of tears. That scream turned into a drowned gasp as the brunette realized that he was back in his original world or at least it seemed to be. He was once again, there on the floor of his workshop with a headache that didn't correspond to a hangover. He recognized that stinging pain characteristic of a blow with some hard object, like his worktable next to him whose corner had traces of dried blood. Tony blinked for a few seconds, listening to Friday's voice saying something he couldn't hear. Everything hurt him, literally and metaphorically speaking. He took a hand to his face to wipe his tears, noting that his fingers were filled with oil that he used for his armor. Just like the first day. He was back at the beginning.

"Tony! Oh, my God!"

"S-Steve?"

Steve rushed to his side, Friday had called Colonel Rhodes after its creator's accident, and Rhodey, in turn, had called the captain. That was Friday repeating as the blonde's arms helped him to sit down, examining him just like a doctor. Tony stood, frowning as he tried to understand what was happening in his head, what had happened to him up to that point. Steve's gentle hands took his face to force him to look him in the eye, seeing himself reflected in them. He was pale, his hair decomposed with drops of blood on his forehead and a terrified look. Tony knew without thinking too much that if he fell asleep again it would be the last time. Everything would be destroyed if he closed his eyes and allowed those Great Old Ones to awaken through his mind.

"Tony, listen to me, take it easy, okay? We're going to bath you and then we'll go to the hospital..."

"Hospital, no, they'd put me to sleep, I can't. No. I’m okay… I think."

"I want you to stay calm. It'll be all right, Tony, we've done it before and we'll do it again."

Tony smiled at him, but his eyes filled again with tears rolling down his cheeks, stopping Steve from lifting him off the ground. This time it was Tony who held his face to stamp a desperate kiss on him, giving in the contact of his lips all the affection, and terror that were mixed within him. The madness that was consuming him.

"I'm going to go crazy, Steve, I'm scared. I don't want to die... and the only thing that keeps me fighting is you," Tony's hands stroked that square jaw that clashed at the gesture. Steve frowned about to say something, but Tony shut him up by putting a finger against his lips, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I..."

They kissed again and Tony wasn't quite sure if Steve wanted to reject him, his arms wrapped him carefully because Cap was the only one who was still remembering that he had hit his head. The kiss was brief and calmer, as Tony’s heartbeat.

"Tony... Listen to me..."

"No, don't say it, I know you're not in love with me."

"I'd like you to stop putting words in my mouth."

"Steve?" Stark looked at him confused.

"Well, I... I like you, Tony. I just always thought you weren't interested, you've always been..."

"An idiot, say it, please."

"No. You looked like someone who wasn't inclined to have a relationship... A serious one."

"Oh."

"Tony, what's going on?"

"I'm crazy," the brunette laughed.

"You already said that but why?"

"Bathroom, first?"

"Yes. I’m sorry, I should have done it first."

Tony laughed as he stood up, leaning against the captain, who took him to the bathroom. Tony took a shower with his help as in those old days when he fought his alcoholism. Steve had seen that bad part of him, hangovers, insults and remained at his side without criticizing or attacking him. He noticed that Cap was dismayed by Tony's condition.

“What?” Tony asked, naked under the shower.

“I should suspect this since Jan appeared casually in one of my morning joggings. She had always been worried about you, and if anything happened, she used to look help for you, even if she doesn’t say it openly.”

“Are you telling me that Jan and you talked before?”

“She was worried, Tony. I’m sorry that I didn’t came earlier,” Steve sighed, “Look at you.”

“Hm. Enough with the compassion, Steve. Let´s finish this.”

Steve rolled his eyes and smiled. He helped Tony to get out of the bathroom.

"Friday, do a review of Tony."

"_Yes, Captain Rogers_."

While Steve went to pick up the medical kit, and check the wound on Stark's head, Tony finished drying and sitting on the edge of his bed watching the captain move so precisely to get the necessary medical material.

"Are you all right, Tony?"

"Thank you for not saying that I'm a mad man."

"Friday says you don't have bruises or serious injuries, it's just a light cut with a good whiskey hangover."

"Guilty."

"Let me guess, did this happen because of the separation of the team?"

Tony dropped his sight. "Yes."

"And you thought I was disappointed in you?"

"You left."

Steve breathed, beginning to disinfect the swollen skin and apply the ointment.

"I needed a time out, Tony, not because I was mad at you. I was disappointed with me and didn't want to be rude to anyone. It was painful."

"It still is... ouch."

"You've had worse injuries."

"I'm in love with you."

Steve stopped his work, arching an eyebrow. "You have a strange ability to say things that don't go with the moment."

"I needed to get it out of my system. And I understand if you don't..."

"Shut up."

"If you'd told me that I only needed to kiss you so I'd know you're interested in me, too, I've done it for a long time, Steve."

"As I said, you're weird, Tony. You do some things instead of others. And you like to avoid the truth."

"Ouch."

"I also want you, now, be kind and explain to me what you are trying to tell me in such a hurry."

"I hate it when you read me so well."

"Start talking."

Tony told him everything that had happened since the first appearance of the creature in his workshop. He didn't put aside his guesses that it was possibly a hallucination caused by the excessive consumption of whiskey. A theory that had many points in favor except for small incidents that told Tony that he wasn't at all hallucinating.

"Is there any way for me to see that too?"

"Unfortunately, you can't get drunk."

"Tony, be serious."

"I'm sorry, hon. I don't think there's any way, I think."

"What if we sleep together?"

"Man of action, I thought you'd take me on a date before we fuck."

"Tony…"

He laughed wearily, playing with his hands. "I'm sorry."

"I feel slightly jealous."

"Because I had sex with a handsome version of you?"

"Yes. Wait… did you say ‘handsome’?"

“Envy doesn’t fit you.”

“Desire, maybe?”

"I need to call the press. Captain America has hidden sexual desires by his fellow Avenger."

"You'd make a lot of money with that headline. I also think you haven't hallucinated; I feel like this all comes from something greater to us."

"I am not that sure, I have to confess," Tony squeezed Cap's right hand a little, "My mind played with me before and you know it. With alcohol…"

"When you said to me that day about not being drunk in front of the UN meeting, I believed you."

"Are you implying that if I tell you that I am sure that Ashatan exists you wouldn't convince me otherwise?"

Steve nodded, smiling. "I trust in you, Tony."

"Because you love me?"

"Don't push."

"Oh…"

"Now, you're going to eat and later we'll check all those data with Friday. Until that, I don't want to hear about monsters or apocalyptic worlds anymore, okay?"

"Sir, yes, Sir."

The air was lightly and seemed for both that their talks were fluid than before, like if they passed an invisible obstacle that forbidden a better dynamic between two of them. Tony sat while Cap cooked a delicious and nutritive dish for him. With Friday putting music and letting the sun entered through the windows, soon they were back at their old mood, Steve talking about missions or reports of SHIELD and Tony making jokes. Tony felt the same energy than with the unreal Steve Rogers in the other world, some confidence, and danger mixed with joy, a good spell to walk straight to another situation if they continued like that. Steve was flirting with more nerve, firm, and looking in the eye at the millionaire who ate as fast as he could and have his mouth free for other things that chewing or drinking that awful water.

"Sometimes you're a pain in the ass, Tony. I want to throw you my shield on that heavy head of yours to make you understand. We worked well with the Avengers; our team was great."

"Except when we allowed Wanda to do things that weren't healthy for her."

"We didn't know."

Tony sighed. "I wish we could. I mean… I felt it, like an alarm inside my head twinkling with a red light when Wanda's powers were too much even for her. When… well, everything since she fell in love with Vision and I am no saying nothing against their love. Just, I don't know."

"Do you think Ashatan is Wanda from another reality?"

"Is a possibility. But I can't tell and I don't like to think about her in that way."

"Me neither," Steve approached at Tony, "But now, we're together again. Your problems are my problems."

"You speak words that you don't realize their price, Steve darling."

"Is that a threat?"

"Is an invitation to kiss me with no modesty and a lot of lust."

The genius didn't want it to make it filthier and needing but Steve's kisses were enough to fry their neurons and be like an animal in heat. Maybe it was because he passed too much time hiding his desires for Cap since forever or the abstinence starting to hit his body and Tony was a strategist who sent his thoughts to the valley of the lust, and sex, a good place to get lost with property. Contrary to his twin version, Steve didn't require awkward explanations, something that made the brunette jealous and pout before Steve vanished both with a hand on his groin. They just walk between kisses and clothes falling on the floor towards the bedroom where they joined naked, hard and grunting.

"Let me taste you," Tony panted.

"If you let me too."

"Jesus, Steve, if I…"

"Stop saying that and stop calling Jesus here."

Tony laughed and went on a mission as Steve changed his position to be between his legs and take his dick with the same confidence that he used to hold the shield. Tony didn't stop thinking about how much time he wasted without telling Cap about his feelings… well, Sharon and other things were in between, he said to himself. He moaned and mewled coming in that hot mouth devouring him, he wanted to do the same but this time Steve's hand stop him.

"I want to come with you in me."

"Are you sure?"

"Tony…"

"Okay, okay, come here, sweetheart. I'm going to show you the stars."

Nothing prepared Tony for the amazing feeling, like a dream that finally came true. He prepared Steve with tender; he knew that the blonde’s resistance was high than human average but still he wanted to show Steve how much he meant for him. He took his time with the lube and enjoying those flinches and trembling on the perfect body of his super-soldier. The way Steve arched off the bed calling him to hurry with a lovely curse. Those strong and dangerous legs entangling around his hips when he finally took him, enter inch by inch until Tony was fully inside.

"Are you… okay?" Steve asked mischievously.

"You greedy thing… aaahh… g-give a few moments…"

Steve smiled at him with cloudy eyes and Tony wanted to cry again but this time in happiness. It was happening, for real. Steve was his and his only. He will fight every Great Old God for him. Tony shook his head, erasing that awful thought and kiss Steve until both were panting for air before start moving, first slowly and when their bodies understood the rhythm, with force. The blonde's hands clawed on Tony’s back once he found his special spot. All the fights, all the misunderstandings, and goodbyes were so silly on Tony's mind compared with the view of his beloved Captain America being pounded on his bed groaning his name. He promised himself to protect Steve's life whatever it was the cost, something so precious was worthy of all the battles.

"TONY!"

He bit Steve’s right shoulder when he came inside him, his hips in a frenzied tempo, enveloped by arms and legs that didn't let go while Steve saw stars, making an arch against the bed. That was the meaning of being in a home, Tony's mind whispered in the silence that followed, recovering on the blonde's body with a loving smile. Sun was on his way to the horizon when they fell asleep after two rounds more.

“I’m in love with you, Tony,” Steve hugged Tony for behind, kissing his sweaty neck, his hands caressed the Arc Reactor in his chest.

Those gestures could be enough for Tony to close his eyes but in a second thought, he resisted to sleep. He only closed his eyes and breathed so slowly until he felt his soldier slept like a baby on his neck, then he opened again his eyes and saw the sunset on his window.

If he fell asleep, that moment will be lost.

With Steve recovering -and Tony was sure that it won't take too much- he forced himself to think about a method to enter willingly Ashatan's world because sleep by tiredness or being knocked out didn't work for two. Formulas and calculus came to his mind from the most incredible and stupid option until the viable ones. Once for a while, the brunette felt sleepy but he only needed caress Steve’s hands to remind himself why he shouldn't close his eyes. Finally, an idea appeared, a simple device to connect both brains and send them straight to the monster and his dying world through the dreams. But it will need a constant energy source, independent and powerful. Again, the blonde's hand was the answer when it touched his reactor.

"That's it."

His mind flew, creating the blueprints and the connections. Tony was very busy and concentrated to catch Cap's trembling. When his hand almost crushed the genius's, he noticed the soldier's temperature. Unusual cold as his whimpering and babblings.

"Steve? Steve, are you okay? Honey?"

Steve's arms tightened his hold, Tony was captured by them but his upper body starting to ache because it was too much.

"S-Steve… ho… ney…"

"NOO!"

The blonde woke up and jumped on the bed without releasing Tony, who breathed again once Steve realized his hold on him.

"Tony!"

"Yeah, it's me. What was that? A nightmare?"

"Something like that," Steve frowned, he was almost hyperventilating, "I saw… I don't know what it was."

"Now you got my attention," Tony joked, trying to move, "You're an artist, why don't you describe it to me?"

Steve blinked twice before answered him. "First, I was here, but it was horrible. Abandoned. And the smell… then I saw in a corner a shadow moved. I thought it was you in armor because it was big but then it growled like a big dog."

"Oh," Tony gulped, "It looked like a hunting dog, a big one?"

"I think so."

"It's my hunter. A hound of Tindalo. Stephen called like that."

"Did you speak with Strange?"

"Jealousy later, Captain Rogers. Focus," Tony looked at him over his shoulder, "I infected you with my nightmares. Now you'll understand better my predicament."

"What was that thing?"

"A hound, like a servant of Ashatan if I understood the monster. It only lives in the dream's world but sometimes it can cross to the real world… and I believe it has to be with the corner and some angles of the corner. You scared me, Steve, your body dropped its temperature and you were trembling and whimpering in a bad way."

"I woke up… why I didn't pass to the other realities like you?"

"I suppose you don't have the VIP pass."

Steve grunted and bit Tony’s neck. "You didn't infect me anything."

"Now I have regrets because we had sex and maybe for that, you saw the hound. Or maybe because you slept at my side. Or…"

"Shut up, my heart is still beating fast."

"I feel it, that's why I'm joking around."

They remained in silence; Tony worried now for Steve who was trying to recovering from the nightmare that feels real.

"Mmmm… Tony?"

"I thought you've slept."

"Yes, I'm a recording."

"Ha, funny," Tony twisted on Steve's arms to see him at least, "We have to face those things and think I found a way to travel to Ashatan's realm."

Steve opened his eyes and narrowed them. "Did you sleep?"

"You know I can't."

"Tony."

"Steve, seriously, it isn't a big deal. Less now that I had you."

"But you have to sleep."

"When it's done."

Steve sighed, he was worried and with reason, his hand touched Tony’s face.

"This is unhealthy for you."

"Just a little, Steve, I promised you I'll sleep after that."

Tony meant it but he hasn't how to prove it to Steve who kiss him before stood up and called him for a bath. Steve Rogers was on mission mode, ready to help him in the workshop with everything he needed to create the device, food included since Tony refused to sleep. He listened Tony's words and was prepared for the travel.

"So, this time you're going to sleep."

"With you… sleep."

"You're incorrigible," Steve smiled, watching the square device, a silver-white box that was attached to the reactor, "Please tell me that thing won't kill you if something broke it."

"We didn't test it for that."

"Tony!"

"I don't think so, Steve. But also, I don't believe it will happen."

Steve arched an eyebrow; Tony rolled his eyes.

"Okay, there is a small little chance, but is like one in a million."

"Better we start."

"Okay, now, I'd finished attaching Morpheus…"

"Did you put it a name?"

"Hush, Steve. We have to lay down."

Steve looked around with the shield on his left arm. "We need a bed or something similar."

"Cap, sweetheart, there is no need for that, just rest on the floor and prepare to be amazed by science."

"You attached that thing to your reactor. Could you explain how I am going to follow you if I don't have any device with me, please?"

Tony giggled, kneeling in the floor that he tapped to call Steve while he leaned with a bare hand that Cap took when he imitated him.

"Steve, we are living batteries. A good conductor of electromagnetism, holding my hand is enough to make you an extension of me."

"That sounds weird."

"You said it, Cap. Are you ready?"

"Don't forget, Tony. I'm with you."

Tony smiled, squeezing his hand. "I feel better with you at my side. Let's start before something else got us apart."

Steve nodded and the genius turned on Morpheus, both men lost their consciousness at the instant when the device hit with energy their brains and sent them to a new world. Outside, an orange sunset decorated New York's horizon with dark brown clouds.

***Hell***

"If this is something made up by my brain, definitely you were infected, Steve. I can't do something so terrific even if I wanted."

"This isn't a hallucination, it´s real."

"I'm trying to be funny here."

Steve merely looked at Tony, having all his concentration in the landscape in front of him. A destroyed New York, a dying sun and the loneliness floating in the air mixed with the metallic taste of the atmosphere, that dusty wind. Tony was right about all his earlier conversation; it was like a premonition of a dark future where forces beyond their comprehension could win because something in the Earth woke them up. A call, done by mistake or with evil intentions. Captain America knew that only the monster which was hunting Tony had the answers, but it was missing. They seemed to be alone.

"Who do you think called Ashatan?"

"I have no clue, Steve," Tony raised his head, watching the dark orange sky, "You need to hate yourself too much to provoke something like this. And no, I love myself enough to not fall into the trap."

"And I gave thanks to God for that."

"Is that an attempt of a joke, Steve Rogers?"

Cap smiled, winking at Tony. "I'm trying to be funny here."

"Copy my lines isn't going to…"

Tony shut up, jumping at the sound of a long deep and strange horn echo traveling with the wind. The clouds above them released its thunders between growls and twists similar to a hurricane. Steve stepped aside from Tony with his shield high on the air. Both swore that they heard a maniacal laugh after the horn's sound but it was difficult to say. A few buildings collapsed, falling with violence in the distance surrounded by a wall of dust and thunders. Tony searched for the monster, watching carefully around them.

"I'm afraid we're alone," Steve observed.

"Ashatan! You piece of shit!"

Steve rolled back his eyes, with his defensive posture in front of Ironman, ready to shoot anytime.

"Over there, Steve, it's…"

"I saw it."

Ashatan appeared behind a corner, crawling like a feline with its tails wiping in the air, and its fangs showing when its blue human eyes made contact with the men a couple of blocks away.

"Something is wrong," Tony whispered, insecure, "Ashatan looks hostile."

"You never watched it like this before?"

"No."

"You, in the air, I'm going to wait for it here."

"But…"

"Trust in me, Tony. Please."

"Okay."

Steve was sure that the reason of that hostile change that Tony had mentioned was due to his presence, confirming that Tony had not infected him with his hysteria, causing him to hallucinate the same thing. Ashatan roared, running like a leopard looking to catch its prey as soon as the armor flew into the air, leaving him seemingly helpless. The captain waited for it with his shield that held the monster well, which threw him into the air until it collided with a crumbling wall. Tony’s cannons prevented Ashatan from sticking his claws and tails into his body, injuring the monster superficially, it had a hard body, especially because of those outside bones that served as protection.

The fight remained that way, with both Avengers taking turns and coordinated to attack the monster and it responding increasingly violently, or, rather, with more rage against Steve. That was the first clue he told Cap that he should be alone with Ashatan. The Minister of Justice had to tell him or done something to him without Tony’s presence. Was the monster some old enemy of his past or was it one common to both? The captain whistled at Tony, beckoning him not to attack this time until he gave him the signal to do so. Tony clenched his teeth, watching Ashatan run with all his might despite bleeding towards Steve, preparing those needles in his tails as his claws to tear him to shreds.

"Now, Tony!"

With a hand from Captain America pointing the ground not far from him, Tony fired with both hands and his reactor in his chest at the spot. The ground beneath the monster was fragile and flew in several pieces when the energy of the cannons hit it. Both, Ashatan and Steve, were fired to opposite sides. Tony flew towards Steve to catch him in his arms while Ashatan ended up drawing an arc in the air, falling beyond Manhattan Bay, where a sea should be there. The monster's body found only dry sand from an equally fragile ground that was fractured by its heavy fall, causing jets of magma that were dismissed into the sky.

"We have to destroy it, and we have to seal this world, Tony. It's a fracture that will affect us as it has affected you."

"That's what I thought, Steve, but how? I very much doubt that that dreadful sky is the answer."

"Where does it all always start?"

Tony blinked, opening his helmet to look straight at the captain. "My tower... the workshop."

"It's the starting point, the axle or the door."

"If I exploit it, this dimension will be closed. I doubt Ashatan will allow it."

"That's what I'm taking care of."

Tony was going to tell Steve to be careful, but a quiet kiss shut him up, both landing to the ground before splitting up to their respective targets. Steve would once again fight the monster while Tony would prepare everything to blow up his workshop. It was funny that and also an unpleasant taste to think of flying the most precious space in his life, however, the well-being of the world, of the universe, and above all of the future's blond were more important than his place of work. He could build another one, but first, he needed to stop preying on those hallucinations and sleep without fear of waking up in an alternate universe.

Tony didn't look back, trusting in Steve's skills to fight the monster. He started to prepare all his weapons and his armor in auto-destruction mode. When he reached the workshop, Tony took a moment to remember his sacred place once more, touching the robotics' arms or his blueprints on the worktable. For a brief second, he thought in retreat and not explode his workshop. Tony shook his head; love and protect Steve was more important. He left the place running as fast as he could with the final countdown. When he reached the street, a tail grasped his neck and made him flew through debris and dust with Ashatan bleeding from head to feet with some bones of its exoskeleton broken.

"What…?"

"Tony! I'm coming for you!"

Ashatan and Tony flew away, jumping from ceiling to ceiling and metal structures with worrying speed. Tony looked one of the wounds on the left side of the monster and hit it with his fist using all his force to break completely the bone and muscle. Ashatan howled, releasing him. Tony fell on a mountain of dust, cushioning his landing on the concrete floor which cracked and exploded with magma escaping between the fractures. Tony ran from it, looking forward to a safe place.

"TONY!" He heard Steve's voice in the distance.

"STEVE! STEVE! HEREEE!"

All the world was becoming a furious copy of Venus, the dying sun seemed to move, like an eye blinking or that Tony imagined, trembling a little on the rock where he has clambered. Ashatan was lost again, but Tony was sure that the monster was near. Captain America reached him, climbing on the rock just in time to see the horizon becoming a good replica of a black hole that moved among a shrieking sound. Both men turned back when they heard an explosion, Stark's Tower collapsed in a fire column. Tony sighed; a kiss was landed on his hair. The clouds opened and let several giant tentacles with luminescent suckers hit the world as a child hitting a piñata. A strong arm held Tony’s waist and he was pasted on the Steve’s chest.

"Hold on! Tony!"

Soon, they discovered that the maniacal laugh wasn't a laugh, it was the sound of another thing, something very big moving around the Earth. The owner of those tentacles destroying their world in rage.

"They knew it," Whispered Tony to Steve, "They will never escape from here… neither we are."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, we save the world once again, Cap."

They turned their heads to see an enormous eye that appeared in the sky, surrounded by hundreds of little eyes with the same shape but different dark colors.

"Close your eyes, Tony, don't look."

"Steve…"

"Hold tight on me, honey."

The pet name made Tony smiled, hugging the captain with his back to the eyes. When he was about to close his eyes, he saw in the distance a figure jumping high towards them. Ashatan. All stopped right then when Tony tried to warn Steve. The monster just disappeared and appeared in a blink of an eye in front of him and pushed them down with force. Rogers reacted by instinct, throwing a punch on Ashatan's skull with his shield while Tony kicked the monster's tails before they hurt them. Probably the fight could continue without any change because neither the three of them wanted to be defeated, but the wounds of the Minister of Justice started to pay back on its system.

"COME ON!" Called Steve with rage, "I DON'T FEAR YOU!"

Ashatan roared, hitting the ground under Steve’s feet that cracked and send him to the air where the monster reached him with a high jump helped by its tails. Tony shouted, turning on his heels to search for something to throw at Ashatan. Maybe their rival was wounded but its will was enough to keep attacking until those tentacles destroyed them as the world. Tony got an idea, he touched his reactor and remembered Morpheus on his chest.

"Of course! We can escape!"

He ran as fast as he could when he saw a piece of metal that could serve him as a trampoline, he put a rock and jumped on the other extreme, sending the heavy rock right to Ashatan's head enough to put it away from Cap who gasped for air in the ground.

"Don't come close! Ashatan…!"

"No! Steve, put your shield high in the air and don't move!"

"Tony…"

"NOW!"

Steve opened his mouth, stunned, he obeyed because the monster return to their fight crawling fast. Tony changed the configuration on Morpheus and send the energy wave into his reactor to create a new blast, shooting at Cap's shield. The metal of the shield and the lighting created an energy bubble around both men, when Ashatan jumped on them, touching the bubble was thrown to the ground between convulsions because the energy broke its exoskeleton. Tony jumped in joy before Steve took his hand and ran with him, leaving the Minister of Justice behind. They hide behind a concrete wall and falling columns, a good site to resist the earthquakes that hit them, caused by the tentacles.

"How did you think about that?" Steve asked, breathing hard.

"Its exoskeleton is like my armor, so energy from the reactor was the only thing that could destroy it."

"That is…"

"What?" Tony frowned.

"Why that monster has a body equal at your armor and fights like you?"

"Ashatan studied me before our first meet. It's logical."

"Not to me."

"Steve, we have to send Ashatan straight to the magma, with this external body damaged, the heat will melt the rest and we can escape in time. Morpehus has the energy for another shot and later we can escape."

"The monster will follow me; do you can repeat that attack but with more accuracy?"

"Hit Ashatan to the magma?"

"Yes."

"We are far from the near column."

"Ready to run again?"

"You know? This is unfair, even in dreams I have to make exercise."

"Do it for me, baby."

Tony smiled broadly and kissed Cap before jumped and ran until Steve lost him, then it was his turn. As Steve suspected, Ashatan appeared when he was in sight. The monster left thick lines of dark blood behind, chasing the soldier until a bridge where its claws almost hurt him. Their plan suffered a change because Ashatan noticed that they were running to the desertic beach where the magma columns rose high, and also saw Tony helping Steve. Using its tails, the monster stopped and jumped at the side, where Tony was hidden.

"TONY!"

He was prepared, using a piece of thick metal as protection from the hit. Both rolled, Tony's hands choking Ashatan while his legs kicked its sides and tails. Steve cursed, running towards them with his shield in front of him using all the force that he had for the sprint. His shield almost cracked when he crashed it against Ashatan and sent the monster far from Tony and to the beach, it was his turn to jump and repeat the attack, one, two and in the third time he achieved his goal. Captain America heard a bone of his arm broke, but he didn't care.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM AGAIN!"

Ashatan flew in the air and passed a magma column between howls. Tony flinched; the howls sounded like a woman screaming in agony. The tentacles stopped their movements in the sky but the sun growled and grew more and more with every second. Steve fell on his kneed trying to recover from the battle. Tony reached him, looking for wounds.

"Steve…"

"Is it dead?"

"I… don't know."

"For God's sake, pray for it."

"It would be better if I check it."

"No."

"You're hurt. Let me see if Ashatan is dead, okay? Between you and me, I have more chances to fight it. Wait here, Steve."

"That sun is scaring me. Looks like a fucking giant mouth."

"I think is like a black hole now, but there is no time for astrophysics, wait, wait…"

Stark ran, leaving the blond sat on the dry sand. Ashatan's body had to be close and he was right. He spotted a black smoke next to a magma column. The monster didn't move, so he approached the body which smelled like a fried chicken, a funny thought for the deadly moment. He was about to return when he almost screamed when Ashatan arched with a whimpering, one of its hands rose to try to touch him. Tony trembled for a reason. First, he was very sure that the Minister of Justice was Wanda herself but now he started to think in another crazy possibility. One that made his heart bit furiously while he walked to the charred body. In the distance, he heard Steve's voice calling him. Tony felt something tearing him apart, kneeling at the monster's side.

_You think… this is a win?_

It wasn't and Tony shook his head, gulping when he took that burn but surprising cold body between his arms with care. He held Ashatan's head, the monster was disappearing like a dry leaf in his hands. For some reason that Tony couldn’t understand, the situation of that Minister of Justice caused him a deep sadness, as if his impending death was something important to him. Ashatan coughed up dark blood clots and something else Tony didn't want to find out, raising a claw that touched the Tony’s cheek.

_They're going to kill you... they will... they hate you enough to do it... don't you see?_

"Ashatan…"

_They're going to destroy you slowly until there's nothing left of you, not even the shadow, but you still won't want to leave them... And then... Then..._

The monster convulsed a little, his whole body began to become a thick, black liquid that was disappearing as he touched that brittle, dry soil.

_... you're going to lose him... Tony... They'll take him from you... they will never let you be together..._

"W-What are you talking about?"

_... Only then... You will call them...,_ Ashatan pointed to the sky where the sound of the horn vibrated again, fracturing the rest of New York and the world, _The Ministers of Justice were... dead..._

"What?"

_... All... but never their spirits... they live here..._

"You mean the real Ministers of Justice can reincarnate? Did one of them use your human body, Ashatan?"

_... where lies don't reach... where you can see them..._

"Ashatan, what was your human name before they possessed you?"

Those human eyes looked at him for the last time shaking, muscles and bones, the monster's latest structure became ashes.

_Don't you already know?_

Tony was left with only a little pile of dust in his hands, which vanished into the air, leaving on his palms something that made Tony shivered.

An Arc Reactor.

"TONY! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!"

He raised his head to see in time the dying sun growled again and lashed a black whip to the planet. Its gravitation force or whatever it had, began to suck every grain of their world. Tony stood up and stumbled because the ground cracked violently this time, he almost lost the arc reactor that he hid inside his pants pocket. Steve appeared behind and held him by the shoulders to shake him.

"TONY!"

"T-Take my hand!"

Tony was still trembling when he activated Morpheus and hugged Cap, hiding his face between his neck and shoulder with the Steve’s arms and the shield protecting him from the dust torment before they vanished. That world disappeared forever.

***Paradise***

This time Tony was sure he hadn't fallen asleep or hit his head, but that makeshift plan to escape Ashatan's world hadn't worked at all. Of course, they were back in their world, yet there was a detail that baffled both men.

New York was empty.

It was as if its habitants had suddenly disappeared, even the animals. As the only living beings in that great city were plants and them. They were on the avenue facing Stark Tower, currently covered by other buildings being behind it. Steve looked at Tony, pointing with his chin at that gesture of Tony’s hands that seemed to hold something invisible. He dropped his eyes to his hands, realizing no Morpheus was on his hands. Tony shook his head to the captain, holding his hand to get up and look around, wondering why they were in a city without a single person around. Everything was in silence too disturbing to remain calm, perhaps the only consolation for Tony was Steve's hand holding his as they walked slowly towards the tower to have a starting point and perhaps resources with which to move and find out if that situation was the same all over the world.

"But what...?"

The captain stopped at all, watching the tower when they finally surrounded one of the buildings that hid it and could see an unmatched name. Instead of saying Stark atop, it said Rhodes Labs International, something that caused Tony to gasp, raising a hand to his chest.

"This is not our world."

"I think so, is it...?"

"Yes, Steve. Where's everybody?"

"You said the disturbance was growing and they feared a global threat coming from the mutants," Steve looked around without letting go of his hand, tense and alert to any surprises, "Do you think that caused the disappearance of all of New York?"

"Possibly, we won't know until we get in."

"I first."

"Nobody's going to attack us here. We're alone."

"I prefer to take my precautions; besides you don't have armor."

"Low blow, Steve."

"Stay close to me, and don't walk away for nothing."

Tony smiled barely, that overprotective gesture of Steve multiplied by the confession of his love made him the best guardian in the universe. He would have hugged him, but he didn't want to break with the atmosphere of adventure they had again. He didn't even resent the effect of involuntary withdrawal, his wounds, or the tiredness he was beginning to have. The initial fear had diminished now that they were more or less safe in that strange universe where he had had his first approach to Cap. Their footsteps were heard on the sidewalk as there was nothing to produce sound throughout the city, except for the wind above that sometimes grazed the buildings. Both Avengers entered the tower smoothly, electricity and services were working, that was a clue to deduce that the mass disappearance had occurred not recently.

"Why disappear all the animals?" Steve asked as they passed the lobby.

"A plant is not going to destroy anything, or do anything."

"I don't understand what you're trying to say."

"To leave the animals would be to allow them to harm the city by not having anyone to contain them. They weren't going to take any chances."

"Who wouldn't take any chances? The gods of Ashatan?"

The mention of the monster's name brought an expression of sadness to Tony, squeezing his fists slightly as he remembered the reactor hidden in his pocket. Those blue eyes were always sad despite the anger that flooded that Minister of Justice reincarnated in a human body. His future.

"Tony?"

"I'm sorry, I was remembering the codes when I was here, maybe Rhodey had changed things."

"It's all right. Don't walk away."

"Concerning your question, I don't know. But someone did something, that's for sure."

They entered the tower, with the silence with them inside the lobby and the elevator that they took once Tony remembered when the other missing Cap guided him to the underground. Steve smiled to him in the elevator, squeezing again his hand in reassurance with a chaste kiss on his lips. Maybe he looked so afraid that Steve was being gentle to soothe him. Tony didn't know, somehow his mind was on Ashatan last words and the arc reactor that he patted once for a while. They reached the lowest level, even there the catastrophe reached Jocasta. Pieces of her metallic body were splatted on the floor, like if something attacked her and destroyed her. Cap watching the control room with narrowed eyes, walking slowly and with the shield high on the air, protecting both of whatever could jump and attack.

"Curious," He said.

"What is curious, Steve?"

"All the humans and animals disappeared without leaving a trace. But here, Jocasta was murder."

"I guess you know why."

Steve nodded. "Because she wasn't an organic being."

"I see," Tony arched an eyebrow, "Whatever attacked her, it couldn't destroy her body at all because the force meant to hurt an organic body, not an artificial one."

"Do you think we can see what happened?" Steve pointed at the empty blue screens.

"Of course, meanwhile, bring to me the leaving pieces of Jocasta. Maybe I can connect some ports to the network."

As Tony imagined, once they could reconnect the system, they watched recordings about the attack. Scarlet energy whips lashed all the city like an octopus, vanishing the humans that were touched by the tentacle. It took less than an hour. After that, everything remained as they saw it when they appeared in that universe, in dead silence with a curious smell that made the brunette shivered because he knew it from before. It was the same smell in Ashatan's lost world. Dusty, dry, the loneliness and the hopeless in its taste.

"Tony, look," Steve pointed at one blue hologram that showed the present city, "Something is floating over the sea. I'm going to go up to see what it is."

"It'll better if we look it from here."

"You know I prefer to trust my eyes."

"Please, if you see anything weird, anything, come back to me. Don't fight it alone, Steve."

Cap smiled, reaching for Tony’s neck and pulling the man to him to kiss his temple.

"Sshh, I am not going to die, okay? Just let me see it."

Tony sighed when Cap took the elevator, moving his hands as fast as he could on Jocasta's pieces. He stopped for a brief moment, then he pulled out the arc reactor to do the same. Looking better at it, the arc reactor was smaller than his, and if Tony could say it, more delicate. Jocasta's memory was lost, but parts of her recordings were safe. The scarlet whip destroyed the robot as Tony supposed, but it left Rhodey's system intact. Strange indeed. He put the last connection on the arc reactor and started to type on the keyboards the commands to analyze the artifact and find answers to his questions. At first, he didn't read anything of value, just data about the material and energy, the same as his arc reactor. Tony decided to connect his artifact to compare with the new data and obtain more clues about how Ashatan finished with something like that. Tony had to wait a little longer until the system could give him some information and he almost fell on the floor.

_Data origins: 3490 fluctuations, unknown universe. _

_Creator: N. Stark._

_Version: 3.1_

"Holy shit," Tony breathed, scratching his beard and his hair, "Ashatan…"

But the surprises didn't finish there, the delicate arc reactor had recordings as the remain pieces of Jocasta. Human recordings. The video was poor, but Tony could see a similar New York city without humans walking on its streets, just a scarlet sun that later became a dark orange one with the sky full of heavy brown clouds. He wasn't sure, but in a little second, he almost heard a woman scream and saw the star on Steve's shield being ripped in two. The recordings were mixed, between a world in calm, beautiful and bright with the same scenario that he saw earlier in Ashatan's world. The tower trembled, warning Tony about an incoming danger. He typed to see Steve on the roof, Cap was looking with big eyes to the sea.

"What…?"

Tony moved the cameras to see better. A woman was floating far beyond the sea.

With scarlet hair.

"W-Wanda…?"

Tony jumped, pulling the wires from his arc reactor to activate one of the armors in that room. Prototypes said the label on the glass. He trusted that Rhodey was smart enough to make a good suit and let him fight against Scarlet Witch.

"STEVE! I´LL BE WITH YOU IN SECONDS!"

He wasted no time to fly and reach Cap on the roof. Steve turned his head to shake his head in confusion before both men felt a new tremor. Wanda was unconscious or that was she seemed from the distance. Her body went back and started to shine until she was nothing but a scarlet light that exploded, sending the energy to the sun who turned its yellow color into a dark orange one, confirming Tony's fears.

"They're coming!" He shouted.

"What in the hell is that?" Steve raised a hand to point at the sky.

Suddenly, the blue sky was now a dark one, with shadows moving, and giant tentacles descending from the stars to the Earth, trying to touch it. One of them captured Captain America. Steve fought back until he managed to cut the thick tentacle with his shield and fell. Tony caught him in the air, flying in a zig-zag to avoid the rest of the tentacles which tried to smash them, destroying part of the city in the process. Within minutes, New York City started to look like Ashatan's world. One of the tentacles touched the sea and evaporated all the water. Another hit the ground and provoked an earthquake. The sun growled as a horn was heard.

"No, no, no, no… how they could…?" Tony stuttered with Steve on his arms, "They should remain captives in that world!"

"Something helped them to pass," Steve replied, "TONY! DUCK!"

Too late, a tentacle hit the armor and sent both men right to a concrete roof near to Rhodey's tower. Strong metallics hands send Cap safe to the floor before hit the concrete between bounces. Steve ran at Tony once he landed, calling him in shouts. The armor was destroyed, so Steve used his shield to break the holding and removed the helmet from Tony's head.

"Tony, speak to me! Tony!"

Blue eyes looked at him with a weary smile. "Hey, there."

"Honey, don't do that again," Steve kissed his forehead, noticing the blood on his hard, "You're wounded. Stay there."

"Steve… you can't fight them… they're gods."

"I'm not going to fight them; I'm going to make us a way out of here."

Tony wished to know what Cap was talking about, he only saw him ran and take the tentacles far away from him. Tony tried to stand up but his body refused, with broken ribs and other bones, the pain was too much and the armor lost its power. He missed Friday or Rhodey. Another earthquake made him lay down, gasping for air when the cursed horn sounded again in the sky and the tentacles retracted. Tony thought to himself that if he heard the sun growled again, he'll murder one of those fucking gods before he died. Luckily, the sun didn't growl but a dark hole appeared sending a giant black ball with fire covering its path towards the Earth. Tony blinked with a thought in his mind. The Great Old Ones passed this universe following something or helped by something as Steve said.

Something that linked their dream world with the real world.

Something…

"The arc reactor…" He coughed a little, "Ashatan's reactor… I brought them here."

He closed his eyes for a few seconds while the dark meteoroid crashed on the dry sea and send a wall of dust and fire around the globe. Tony didn't see Captain America coming back to his side with the shield covering both from the hit. Now they were in the same scenario, but in a different universe with those gods trying to break the last wall between their dream world and the one where they were fighting for their lives.

"In the name of Jesus…" Steve whispered, gasping.

The dark ball changed to another form, a giant humanoid form. It was a monster, no doubt because it had claws and long legs. Its head was something else, like a tentacle moving fast above a hole that moved like a mouth or a hung, it was difficult to say and understand. Whatever was the structure of the giant monster, was beyond everything both Avengers saw in their adventures and surely was far beyond any imagination when it howled. Tony screamed as Steve flinched, covering with one hand Tony’s ears, the soldier was more resistant thanks to the serum but even with that, he bled. The monster lashed around and started to walk in New York direction, breaking the dry ground in every step. From the fractures sprout dark shadows that the sun illuminated. Cap raised his head to look, the shadows were humanoids with fish face, showing their sharp fangs and claws, running so fast that they reached the city between minutes.

"Tony, try to go back to the tower, I'll distract them. Lock the control room."

"Steve, no! That's insane!"

"Please, do it for me. Please, baby?" Steve smiled to him with eyes and ears bleeding as Tony.

"They are hundreds."

"Go back, you can't fight anymore."

"Let me…"

"Tony!"

Tony almost sobbed. "Steve…"

"I will reach you after! Now, go! Go!"

Cap took his shield and ran, jumping to the stairs to wait for the fish monsters while its master was walking slowly but destroying everything in its path with that long tentacle head. Tony tried to move, but he decided crawled with patience between tremors, daylight becoming a sunset with a sun darker. Steve stopped in the middle of the avenue, watching the street lamps and the electricity wires. He launched his shield, breaking the wires and the post lamps just in time when the fish monster wave ran straight to him with their claws high. Cap retrieved in a running in purpose, making those humanoids stepped on the wires to be fried by the electric energy. The burning smell reached Steve’s nose, making him cough. A small group of the fish monster surrounded the avenue to catch the soldier in the next corner, almost getting him, but Tony threw at them one big cracked wall that he pushed.

"Steve! The entry was blocked! Come up here!"

Cap nodded, breathing hard for the run while he was jumping and scaling the emergency stairs. A few monsters survived the wall and followed the men, hissing in the walls. Tony was helped by the blonde to stand up and walk with a limp to a corner where he was thinking on a jump to a broken window of the tower.

"This is insane, Tony, you'll be hurt more."

"It's the only way, Steve. Throw me."

"No… Wait!"

Steve punched and kicked the fish monsters, between a growing frustration of being overpassed by the power of the Great Old Ones and the fear of losing Tony. He was afraid that Ashatan could curse Tony and that made those beast travel through the multiverse to get him. When the last humanoid was thrown at the ground, the giant monster reached New York City, lashing with that tentacle head with the dying sun behind it. Cap turned on his heel to see at Tony, gulping and shrugging as if he was about to make a trick.

"Steve! NO! NOOO!"

Tony was on his knees, gasping and tired for his wounds. His eyes followed Steve's steps to the opposite side of the roof with his shield in hand facing the giant monster which seemed to spot him with no eyes, its form only turned to the blonde direction hitting a building to clear its path. Captain America was facing a messenger of the Outer Gods and Tony felt that he already saw the same scenario before. He remembered Ashatan's reactor, the recordings, the scream and the shield broken. He wanted to cry, blaming himself for being so useless and weak when Steve needed him the most. Tony trembled with the sight of hundreds of eyes appearing in the orange sunset between the dark clouds and the dusty wind. A thing, a mass or something like that floating near to the Earth… no, they were behind something, watching their messenger against Captain America.

"STEVE!" Stark shouted, trying to make him went back to his side.

And for some reason, he shut up, looking at those gods, the giant monster showing shinning sucker and suddenly making a not so strange noise, like a skirl similar to a laugh. He heard it in Ashatan's world, in his hallucinations. Why those Gods didn't attack? They were more powerful than two Avengers, even more, powerful than an entire world. What they were waiting for? Tony noticed that the eyes and all the shadows seemed to watch Steve with attention, even the giant monster between the building. What were they doing? Tony frowned, passing his eyes from Cap to the Gods and the monster. Something was going on. Ashatan's encounters came to his mind, that weird body like a human with the inverse anatomy, deformed by a dark evil and its thirst for vengeance against the guilty ones.

"Ashatan was me," Tony whispered with a cold shiver, "I lost Steve and called these Gods to help me with my claim, my revenge."

"Tony!" Steve called him, stepping back just enough to make him hear, "Something helped them to travel until here, the same thing could make them go back!"

"I know what it is! Can you distract them for me?"

Steve looked at him, suspicious. "Tony?"

"It will work! I promise you! Just… make time!"

Cap nodded, running again to jump at the stairs and face the monster even knowing it was too much for him in those conditions. He was tired as well but he was resisting for Tony, who crawled to the roof edge and started to fix their boots, a dangerous jump because of the distance. He knew what to do and while the blonde reached the tentacle head monster. Tony jumped with clenching teeth and preparing himself for the crash. He almost fell but he managed to grip the window and got inside the room in the tower.

It was like a marathon for him, reach the elevator and went to the control hall, searching for the arc reactor that he connected with his own.

"I am not going to lose Steve."

There, he saw something on Jocasta's pieces, a pair of metal fingers holding a little chip. Tony broke the fingers, took the microchip and put it on the control panel. If Jocasta protected with her life that thing was for a reason. And she was right.

"Thanks, Jocasta!"

He sobbed, preparing the systems. Jocasta located the main fracture that brought Wanda and he in that universe, that started everything. He was in it. That's why Rhodey made that room, it was a contention cell and he tried to help Wanda but it was too late for the young mutant. She went mad and called the gods without being aware of what she was doing, in a universe were the mutants hated the humans worse than on his own.

"Fucking Gods," Hissed Tony, his vision was cloudy, "Just a little more…"

Tony typed to see what was Steve doing. To his surprise, the giant monster was now just a human size and he was talking with the blonde.

"No! Steve don't listen! They will make you crazy… like me!"

He laughed and cried, Tony wished so much a few hours to sleep and rest. Taste how good was to close eyes and dream something beautiful, without hangover, loneliness or the fear of appearing in another universe. The systems were ready and the red alarm illuminated the room. Tony narrowed his eyes, his arc reactor started to shine while he raised high a hand to hit a button. A new earthquake almost made him fell on the floor but he held on the control panel.

"Not this time, bastard. I'm a genius and you are not going to touch my Cap!"

The arc reactor shone and Ashatan's reactor did it after, sending the energy to the systems and collapsing the column as the walls. Tony saw the fracture, the real one. A thin dark line moving like a snake in the air with the rhythm of breathing. He screamed and force his reactor to shoot to the fracture, the connection broke Ashatan's reactor and the fracture exploded, sending Tony against a wall behind. Tony went unconscious, falling on the floor. Outside, Steve ran to the tower leaving that monster with the low voice behind. The messenger presented himself as a vessel of the Outer Gods, the Great Old Ones and the darkness that created the multiverse. They were ready to wake up and recovered what they belonged to them. Cap only snorted at those words before heard Rhodey's tower started to fall into pieces. He didn't waste time in use the elevator, he just gripped the cord and slid until the control room that was shining in multicolor.

"TONY!"

Steve found Tony unconscious on the floor, in front of him was something strange, like a thin line that breathed and hissed, growing fast and shinning in different colors and if he could swear, the line was taking the form of an arc reactor. He took Tony between his arms first and later on his right shoulder to climb, the sweat rolled on his forehead for the effort. Cap was sure that both will die there, reach the lobby was impossible. Then the air pulled him up, floating in the middle of the path until they reached a safe ground on the lobby. Steve took his shield when he saw the messenger there, the monster had helped them.

"Touch him and you'll be dead," He claimed, protecting Tony.

"**This time won't be the last time we saw each other. Maybe you closed the door, but the door always exists as long we exist**."

"Why did you save us if you want to murder us?"

The messenger only raised a claw, the multicolor line was now a wave reaching that level.

"**Your doom is the oblivion, the repetition of history. You can escape and we can wait because nothing, even our gods can defeat us and with time, the death itself can die**."

Steve was about to reply but the shinning covered everything. He hugged Tony with a kiss on his bleeding head before closed his eyes and prayed for a miracle. Steve didn't notice Tony waking up in time, watching the messenger smiled to him with a claw on what supposed to be a mouth and other drawing in the air a circle on its chest before pointing at him. Tony gasped and then, everything collapsed and that world, once more, was destroyed.

** THE RETURN **

The alarm rang.

With his usual laziness for the tedious routine, Tony opened his eyes, slowly counting every ring until it added nine; not so late but not so early either. A good hour to wake up from a midnight hangover and face the world once again. The daylight passed by the white curtains of his bedroom, touching the large bed and his figure as fingers trying to pull him to the new fresh day outside. He felt tired, missing the voice of Steve waking him up to join into a new routine in the gym or a sudden mission: in his suit and ready for the fight with a mug of black coffee, smiling to him before they got serious. No more. The Avengers were disassembled, and he had lost his money to support the initiative, as well as the government approves.

_"Good morning, Boss. The weather is sunny for the whole day, traffic jams in the main avenues but the alternative roads are clear if you want to visit the new building for the pharmaceutical division with the Board."_

"Thank you, Fri, I love you."

"_Do you want me to call Captain Rogers?_"

Tony stopped on his tracks, blinking. He made that conversation before, he was sure. But not with Steve's name in Friday's words.

"What's going on?"

"_I don't know what are you talking about, Boss_."

"Just tell me that everything is ok."

"_Yes, Sir. The UN approved the new Avengers mansion and the initiative. Mrs. Watson called to confirm your visit to the building and gave your thumb up to the interior design_."

Stark looked around, uneasy, he felt that he was missing something important. He watched the calendar and the clock on the wall. The photographs on the kitchen's bar that showed the construction of the new Avengers headquarters. Something was missing. Tony gulped, scratching his face as if he was in a nightmare.

"How many hours I slept?"

"_Eight healthy hours, Boss. As the Captain recommended_."

"Steve… Steve was here?"

"_Yes, Sir. You called after Professor Xavier's meeting_."

"I'm a bit dizzy, darling. Could you explain to me what Charles said?"

"_Mr. Maximoff is breaking down, and his powers are unstable. He can't control her any longer_."

"Thanks for the summary."

"_Do you want me to call your helicopter?_"

"… yes…"

Tony sat on the floor with a thud sound, he wasn't lying about feeling dizzy. Memories came back to him, pieces of battles and monsters between Steve's kisses, fake kisses, and real kisses. Dying suns and dying worlds. Wanda destroying the reality and releasing with that an ancestral power, gods in the darkness waiting to wake up by someone.

"Jesus, I'm losing my mind."

He traveled to the new Avengers mansion, checking everything, not for vanity but to have another thing to think about it instead of those nightmares and crazy memories of being with Steve, felt his lips on his or his body against…

"Are you satisfied, Mr. Stark?"

"Yes, Mary, I-I need to go back to my workshop."

"Do you want Mr. Jarvis to contact the team?"

"Why?"

Mary Jane Watson blinked, smiling a little. "Sir… you ordered yesterday. A meeting with the mutants and SHIELD."

Tony coughed and giggled, nervous. "Do it, I…"

"Will be with Captain Rogers, yes, you told me before."

Steve was waiting for him in his workshop, in jeans and a black t-shirt, playing with a pencil. Tony watched the blonde from the other side the glass wall until Cap felt his eyes on him and turned to smiled at him. Tony walked in, not very sure of what expected. He dreamed of all that stuff or it was real?

"I'm glad that you rest enough, Tony. I saw you anxious yesterday after Charles's meeting," Steve sat on a chair and frowned, "Are you okay?"

"I can't lose you, I can't."

"Tony… Wanda won't hurt us."

"No, isn't that," Tony gulped and walked until he faced Steve, "I will kill everything and everybody who try to set us apart. I can't lose you again."

Steve got serious. "Are you… flirting with me?"

Tony looking at him, nervous but determinate. He tried to speak but his voice was only a funny shriek that made both laughed.

"Yes, I suppose I love you," He answered later, "I suppose you… not. I dreamed that you hated me and later you fucked me, and when the universe was about to disappear you said you love me. But it was only a nightmare, I suppose."

"Said that I love you was a nightmare? You have a funny way to seduce."

"I-I… met my other me, someone who lost another Captain America and was dead inside. Crazy outside, evil around. Am I talking nonsense?"

"Since you entered this workshop."

They laughed again before Steve stood up and took Tony's face between his hands to kiss him as a response at his flirting. Tony almost cried right there in happiness, but still worried.

"Please, be real. I can't take another dream or another travel in the multiverse."

"I'm real, Tony. And maybe you forgot the last days because we talked a lot and this love confession was expected on my side."

"Yeah?" Tony whispered, with a cracking voice.

"Easy, I am not playing. And that dream was wrong."

"In which part?"

"I prefer to say that I love you before fuck you. Seriously? What about to make love?"

"I am in."

Both groaned in pain when something happened, like a sting inside their minds. Everything around changed and later returned to his normal state. Tony gasped with a hand on his chest, feeling the buzzing sensation of his reactor.

"Wanda," Steve said with a frown.

"Steve, she is dangerous."

"No, she isn't. She just needs help."

"You know that mutants hate me, Steve. Erik the most."

"That's a lie."

"Because I know how to defeat them."

"Enough. We have to talk about it with the rest. She is our friend and an Avenger."

"And a dangerous mutant…" Tony snorted, just at that moment he understood Wanda's feelings, "She just lost everything and blame herself for the deaths."

"We have to talk to others. Jarvis called them?"

"I think so…"

"Tony, are you feeling okay?"

"Kiss me again, make me feel that nothing wrong is going to happen to us."

Steve did it and the genius closed his eyes surrendered in the sensation, Tony was sure that he lived all those things, that he talked with Ashatan in a dying world and fought with Steve against dangerous Gods coming from the darkness in a dream prison. And at the same time, he felt that it was Wanda's creation. She owned a dangerous power, the ability to change the reality by only thinking. Like a wish, like a thought born in the darkness. As those Great Old Ones wished. A simple wish to wake up, a call. He growled a little and hugging Steve with force.

But in his mind, he heard a whisper.

_They're going to kill you... they will... they hate you enough to do it... don't you see?_

_They're going to destroy you slowly until there's nothing left of you, not even the shadow, but you still won't want to leave them... And then... Then..._

_... you're going to lose him... Tony... They'll take him from you... they will never let you be together..._

_... Only then... You will call them..._

Cap thought Tony shivered for the hungry kiss, ignoring that his new lover and partner was trembling in fear because inside of him, he heard a laugh.

Natasha Stark's laugh.

**The End.**


End file.
